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^ffii If Jj o j^|£ ki^l^wS v 



A PERSONAL HISTORY 



OP 



ULYSSES S. G-KANT, 



ILLUSTRATED BY TWENTY-SIX ENGRAVINGS; 



EIGHT F AC-SIMILES OF LETTERS FROM GRANT, LINCOLN, SHERIDAN, BUCKNER, 

LEE, ETC.; 



AND SIX MAPS. 



WITH A PORTRAIT AND SKETCH OF SCHUYLER COLFAX. 



BY 



ALBERT D. RICHARDSON, 

AUTHOR OF "FIELD, DUNGEON, AND ESCAPE," AND "BEYOND THE MISSISSIPPI." 



[Issued by subscription only, and not for sale in the book-stores. Residents of any State in the Union desiring a copy 
should address the Publishers, and an agent will call npon them.] 



HARTFORD, CONN.: 

AMERICAN PUBLISHING COMPANY 

NEWARK, N. J.: 

BLISS AND COMPANY. 

CHICAGO, ILL.: 

G. & C. W. SHERWOOD. 

1868. 



Eaz 






fiy transfer 
The TOiite House. 



Entered according to Act of Congress, in the year 1868, 

By ALBERT D. RICHARDSON, 

In the Clerk's Office of the District Court of the Southern District of New York. 



R 



"jdur greatest yet with least pretense, 
pr^at in council, and great in war, 
Foremost Paptain of his time, 

JllCH IN SAYING COMMON SENSE, 
7^ND, AS THE GREATEST ONLY ARE, 
TN HIS SIMPLICITY SUBLIME. 

}VhO NEVER SOLD THE TRUTH TO SERVE THE HOUR. 

Nor paltered with eternal poD for power; 
}Vho let the turbid stream of rumor flow 
'Jhr^ugh either babbling world of high or low ; 
]Vhose life was work, whose language rife 
JVith rugged maxims hewn from life. 

jib on whom, from both her open hands, 

j^avish j-fonor showered all her stars, 

,and affluent j^ortune emptied all her horn." 

TENNYSON'S ODE— DEATH OF WELLINGTON. 



PREFACE. 



In 1861, when the guns of Sumter awoke the country, a resigned army 
captain, in his fortieth year, was living at Galena, Illinois. His civil life of 
seven years had been a hard struggle. Though healthy, temperate, and 
most industrious, he had found serious difficulty in supporting the wife and 
children to whom he was devotedly attached. Ht; had failed as a farmer, 
and as a real-estate agent, and was now clerk in his father's leather store, at 
a salary of eight hundred dollars per year. 

He was hardly known to a hundred persons in the little city. His few in- 
timates esteemed and loved him ; but he seemed so out of place in the 
scramble of life, that even they regarded him with something of that patron- 
izing sympathy which those who earn their bread and butter easily, feel for 
the " unpractical " who are baffled by that first problem of existence. 

He had shown little interest in politics, and ;Jhad never voted but once. 
Though a very close reader of newspapers, he lacked the culture derived 
from books. In hours of leisure he wooed not history, philosophy, nor 
poetry — but euchre, whist, and chess ; smoking his clay pipe, and, between 
the games, relating incidents of the Mexican war and of garrison life in Oregon. 

At the Military Academy hehad been unnoticeable, and he graduated near 
the middle of a class which was by no means brilliant. His military life of 
eleven years gave no distinguishing promise. His reputation was very high 
for amiability, truthfulness, and fair-mindedness. While campaigning in 
Mexico, and while busy as a quartermaster both in Mexico and on the 
frontier, it was above the average for bravery, energy, and business efficiency ; 
but in the idle routine of a line-captain during his last year in the army, and 
in the circumstances of his leaving it, this had been something marred. 

And now when he offered his services to the Government, the adjutant- 
general did not even answer his letter ; his native Ohio had no commission 
for him, and the governor of his adopted Illinois gave him a half-clerical, 
half-advisory position, only on the persisting demands of two Galena 
gentlemen. 

" Many meet the gods, but few salute them." The obscure ex-captain 
had reached middle life without much honor, either in his own country or 



vi Peeface. 

anywhere else. Had he died then, he would have been remembered only 
as a pure, shy, kindly gentleman, of moderate abilities. 

But a destiny almost incredible awaited him. In one year he was a 
laureled hero. In three, he had risen to the command of a million of 
soldiers. In seven lie was the predestined President of the Great Republic. 
At a period requiring the highest statesmanship, he had won the enthusiastic 
confidence of thirty millions of people in his ability to conduct their civil 
affairs ; and the leather-dealer's clerk was the foremost man of all the world. 

The bare outline of this strange, eventful history, reads like a leaf from the 
Arabian Nights. I have endeavored to fill in details which make it more 
intelligible. 

I first met General Grant on his way to Donelson. His unassuming 
modesty, and a certain quiet earnestness, which seemed to "mean business," 
won greatly upon me, but kindled no suspicion that he was the Coming 
Man. My fancy painted that expected hero in the good old colors, as quite 
the opposite of this prosaic brigadier. In my mind's eye I saw him charg- 
ing at the head of his body-guard in the supreme moment of battle, while 
he cried, " God and the Union ! " and flaming out in proclamations which 
rang through the land like a trumpet — all in the high Roman fashion. 

But every general of whom I predicted greatness, failed to achieve 
it. Meanwhile, I saw more of Grant, sitting beside him around nightly 
camp-fires, at the most trying period of his life. Even then I defended 
him a little haltingly, against bitter assailants. I held him a pure man, 
an energetic fighter, but by no means one of the few, th' immortal names. 

At last, educated to humility of opinion through "the long, dull anguish 
of patience," it dawned upon me that he was winning great successes, be- 
cause he was a great general — rising into the key position of the national 
batteries, solely because he was our gun of heaviest metal and largest caliber. 

In these pages I do not give all the minute details of his achievements in 
the field. The world knows them by heart. I seek rather to show what 
made him the man he is — the stock from which he sprang; the molding 
influences of his boyhood ; his early military and civil life ; his intellectual 
growth, and political education during the great rebellion ; his opinions 
since on national and international affairs — chiefly the difficult and ever- 
changing questions involved in the stupendous problem of re-adjusting the 
political and industrial relations of ten millions of people, occupying half a 
continent ; and through all, the little things indicating the interior life of 
the man — what he thought, and hoped, and feared. Hence I relate many 
incidents, believing that those, even, which seem trivial and pointless, may 
help to throw light upon his organization and development. 

Personal histories so abound in colorings, suppressions, and half-truths, 
that it has been said, " A biography is either a satire or a panegyric." For 
example, documents still in existence prove the George Washington of 
popular repute as fabulous as Liliput or Bluebeard. There never was any 
such perfect, supra-human Washington. But there was a Washington, full 
of human weaknesses and faults, yet of such practical wisdom, such long- 



Preface. vii 

suffering patience, such radiant integrity, that those who knew hira best 
loved and honored — not the moral Apollo we substitute for him, but the 
living man, infirmities and all, just as he was. 

I can not hope to have escaped altogether the dangers which beset this 
path of literature. But I have tried to write without any theory to vin- 
dicate, any case to make out, or any party to serve. I have not asked 
"Whom will this or that fact help or injure ?" but only, "Is it a fact?" I 
have consciously added nothing, concealed nothing, explained away nothing. 
I have endeavored, not to paint the ideal, but to photograph the man — or, 
rather, to let the man photograph himself. Wherever it was practicable, 
I have copied verbatim from his letters, orders, and reports. In conversations 
I have not professed to give his language in a single case, unless some 
record, or some person I believe trustworthy, has given his language to me. 

In consulting previous works, I have drawn most upon Badeau's admi- 
rable volume. For new material, official records have been opened to me 
with great freedom and kindness, enabling me to use many letters and dis- 
patches upon important points of our recent history, never before given to 
the public. I have journeyed thousands of miles to visit the various scenes 
of Grant's checkered life, and talked with hundreds of his life-long acquaint- 
ances, civil and military. All have afforded me cheerful assistance, and all 
have expressed hearty love and admiration for his character. 

There are men who still see in him only the darling of fortune — ener- 
getic Mediocrity which has blundered into success. I think such are misled 
by two of his peculiar qualities : — 

I. He is unimaginative. When he has nothing to say, he says nothing. 
In private he fills no interstices of conversation with remarks upon the 
weather, or inquiries after the babies of his visitor. In public he can make 
no speeches simply of form or compliment ; and since the world cared to 
hear his opinions on affairs, his official position has seldom allowed him to 
speak freely. But in public or in private, when he lias any thing to utter 
by tongue or pen, he says it with extreme rapidity and clearness, in terse, 
marrowy, idiomatic English. His final report as lieutenant-general, his 
correspondence on the Mexican question, his instructions to military subor- 
dinates in the South, and other documents in the closing chapters of this 
volume, afford many examples. But he clothes his thoughts in no flowers 
of rhetoric; he presents them in the plainest, homeliest words. Napoleon's 
memorable sayings are all of this order: "From these summits forty cen- 
turies look down upon you." "We will carry our victorious eagles beyond 
the pillars of Hercules." Grant's are the exact antipodes: "I have no 
terms but unconditional surrender." " I propose to move immediately 
upon your works." " I shall fight it out on this line if it takes all summer." 
The armies were " like a balky team." His army was " in a bottle strongly 
corked." Said the dramatic Corsican after Austerlitz : " Soldiers, I am 
satisfied with you. You have decorated your eagles with immortal glory." 
Said the matter-of-fact American to his shouting men after Port Gibson : 
" Soldiers, I thank you. That is all I can say. You have done a good day's 



viii Preface. 

work to-day, but you must do a better one to-morrow." No gushing 
rhetoric — only the simple, unadorned fact. 

II. He is utterly undramatic. Scott was nicknamed by his enemies, 
"Fuss and Feathers." Grant has less fuss and fewer feathers than any 
other public man of his day. He believes that " That which is, &." He 
accepts things just as he finds them, not troubling himself about the " Eter- 
nal Verities," but doing promptly, thoroughly, and subordinate^', the duty 
which lies right before him, however prosaic and disagreeable. He acts his 
convictions instead of talking them. So he is called " common-place :" for 
we Americans are prone to confound brilliancy with greatness ; to admire 
any special shining gift, even though accompanied by some corresponding 
weakness, rather than that large development and harmonious adjustment 
of all the faculties— clear judgment, or good common-sense. But even 
genius, according to Buffon, is "only great patience." 

Earely has so much greatness been disfigured by so few littlenesses ; so 
much goodness marred by so trivial faults. I believe Grant's character- 
peculiarly unique and American— one of the most beautiful in history ; a 
worthy companion to that of the great President, murdered through the foul 
conspiracy which was aimed at his life also. Happily he remains to com- 
plete the work of Abraham Lincoln— to whom he is so unlike, and yet so 
like— with the same steadfastness and sagacity, the same "charity for all, 
and malice toward none." 

He is singularly genuine and guileless. He still preserves in his high estate 
the sweetness and simplicity of his country boyhood. Altogether free from 
cant, his lips, obeying the teachings of his mother, have uttered no oath, 
been soiled by no coarseness. He is a miracle of serenity and self-poise. 
During the terrors of Belmont, when an aide, with pallid cheeks, cried, 
" Why, General, we are surrounded !" there was no perceptible change in 
his pleasant face or calm voice as he answered, " Then we will cut our way 
out." Nearly four years later, as he read Lee's dispatch proposing the sur- 
render of the Army of Northern Virginia, he was equally unmoved ; no elation 
shone in his face, or sounded in the ordinary tone in which he asked : 
" Well, General Rawlins, how do you think that will do ?" " Tried by both 
extremes of fortune, and never disturbed by either," he remains as simple 
and unaffected to-day as in his years of poverty and obscurity. 

Our war might have developed a leader profligate, corrupt, or uneasily 
ambitious, as so many great captains have been in the past. It gave us in- 
stead this pure, modest, simple-hearted man, who is loyal and admirable in 
private life, who loves himself last, and who believes most enthusiastically 
in the United States of America. Invincibility in war, magnanimity in vic- 
tory, wisdom in civil government, and unselfishness in all things — what are 
these, if they be not greatness ? 

" What is writ is writ ; would it were worthier." 

It is the imperfect record of a life which carries a striking lesson of 
charity, of faith in human nature, of certainty that the highest talents may 
sleep undiscovered until opportunity comes, without which no man is great. 

New York, August 1, 186S. 



CONTENTS. 



' CHAPTER I.— Genealogy. 

PAGE 

Matthew Grant lands at Nantasket — Milk one penny a quart — On the verge of 
Starvation — A Quaint old Epitaph — Fighting Famine and Indians — 
Surveyor, Town Clerk, and Church Clerk — Matthew Grant's Church 
Eecord — An Umbrella as a Weapon — Solomon Grant makes his Will — 
Noah Grant's Handwriting — Solomon and Noah Grant killed — Noah 
Grant, junior, in the Revolution — Settles in Western Pennsylvania — 
Removes to the Ohio Wilderness — The Grant Genealogical Record 17 

CHAPTER II. --Parentage and Birth. 

End of the last Century — How the People lived — Boston, Albany, and St. 
Louis — From Cincinnati to Pittsburg — A Glance at Famous Men — And 
those to become Famous — Many Digressions intended — Ingenuity of young 
Jesse — The Boy's Mother dies — How the Ohio Settlers lived — Jesse on 
Spoons and Bowls — The last War with England — Jesse looks for a Wife — 
And meets with Ill-Fortune — But finally Marries wisely — And Ulysses is 
Born 33 

CHAPTER III.— Boyhood. 

The Baby Named by Ballot — Jesse moves to Georgetown — A great place for 
Drinking — " I can't take Powder " — A Correspondence in Rhyme — Ulysses 
the Favorite Child — Early exploits with Horses — Boyish feats of Horse- 
manship — A curious juvenile Bargain — Skating, Fishing, and Swimming — 
A New and Improved Version — " When the Cat's away " 49 

CHAPTER IV.— Early Youth. 

A Journey to Deerfield — A thoroughly boyish Trick — Working in the Bark 
Mill — <: Dave and Me " — Ulysses sent to Louisville — Driving a good 
Bargain — The Hills " Judgment and Mercy " — Ulysses' Father and 
Mother — At School and in Sports— The Military Spirit fervent — A Student 
at Maysville and Ripley — Ulysses' standing at Seventeen 61 

CHAPTER V.— West Point. 

Plans for Future Life — A Vacancy at West Point — Ulysses " Simpson " 
Grant Appointed — Reaches the Military Academy — Its Scenery and Stirring 
Memories — Moll Pitcher's Life and Death — Obstructing Rivers with Chains 
— Darkest days of the Revolution — Arnold escapes to the Enemy — The Ro- 
mantic Memory of Andre — Winfield Scott on West Point — West Point 
saves the Country 73 

CHAPTER VI.— Graduates. 
How Cadets are treated — Only an Inch to Spare — Routine of Study and Drill — 
How Offenses are punished — What the Graduate has learned — Ulysses 
thrashes a Classmate — Nicknames of the Cadets — " Leave it to Uncle 
Sam " — " I can't die but once." — Graduates and returns Home 85 

CHAPTER VIL— Mexican War— with Taylor. 
Lieutenant Grant at Jefferson Barracks — Where he falls in Love — Origin of the 
Mexican War — How Annexation was received — Lieutenant Grant and his 
jovial Colonel — Stationed at Corpus Christi, Texas — How Taylor obtained 



x Contents. 

PAGE 

Mules — The Army marches for Mexico — And encamps opposite Mata- 
moras — Grant fights his first Battle — And the next day his second — War 
" upon our own Soil " — Scott's " Fire in the Rear " — Pillow's Ditch and 
Breastwork — The Battle of Monterey — Three Days of Hard Fighting — 
Grant runs a Gantlet of Death — " Green " rendered into Spanish 95 

CHAPTER VIII. — Mexican War — with Scott. 
Taylor is attacked at Buena Vista — And wins a Splendid Victory — "Generals 
made out of any thing " — The battle of Cerro Gordo — A Solitary Relic of 
the Aztecs — Grant's Regiment seizes San Augustine — Battles of Contreras 
and Churubusco — The Attack on Molino del Rey — Lively times for Lieu- 
tenant Grant — Chepultepec Stormed and Captured — Lieutenant Grant 
earns a Captaincy — End of the Mexican War — What it Lost and Gained 
us — Taylor nominated for the Presidency — Quartermaster Grant is robbed 
— Returns home and defends Taylor 113 

CHAPTER IX.— Marries. 
Wedding — Winter at Sackett's Harbor — The new Couple begin Housekeep- 
ing — And a Son is Born to them — Grant's Life in Detroit — Outdoor and 
Indoor Pleasures — A Quarrel with Zachary Chandler — Chandler fined six 
cents and costs — Grant at Sackett's Harbor — Odd Fellow and Son of Tem- 
perance — A very Uneventful Life 129 

CHAPTER X.— Resigns. 

Ordered to the Pacific Coast — How the Ladies crossed the Isthmus — Grant's 
Energy and Resources displayed — Ravages of Cholera in his Regiment — His 
Kindness to the Suffering Men — Stationed on the Columbia River — Enter- 
tains George B. McClellan — "How clear-headed Sam Grant is!" — A Captain 
at Fort Humbolt, California — Living on the Fat of the Land — Resigns and 
returns Home — His Fortunes at a low Ebb 139 

CHAPTER XL— Farmer. 

Four Years' Residence at Gravois — Builds a House and hauls Wood — His Heart 
Warm toward old Comrades — Visits his Brothers at Galena — A Black Skin 
but a True Heart — Grant casts his First Vote — An Adventure with a Wood 
Thief — Grant and Boggs form a Partnership 151 

CHAPTER XII— Real Estate Agent. 
Grant lives in Camp Style — Conducts Business in Boggs's absence — Suffers from 
Ague and Rheumatism — Trades off Hardscrabble — How his Friends re- 
garded him — Applies for the County Engineership — Indorsements on the 
Application — " Leading Citizens " who seconded it — Why it was Unsuc- 
cessful — Boggs and Grant dissolve Partnership 159 

CHAPTER XIII.— The Leather Store. 
The Captain disappointed again — Visits his Father at Covington — Settles in 
Galena, Illinois — A Clerk in the Leather Store — A Hard Struggle for a Liv- 
ing — Grant is a Douglas Democrat — But is Converted to Republicanism — 
Disturbed about Public Affairs 169 

CHAPTER XIV.— The Long Roll. 
Fort Sumter is fired on — Meeting in the Galena Court-House — A Grand Speech 
from Rawlins— Grant presides at another Meeting — He makes his First 
Speech — Goes with Washburne to Springfield — A Clerk in the Governor's 
Office — Made Colonel of the Twenty-first — His Men like Falstaff's Soldiers 
— Beginning of Washburne's Friendship — His Heart Tender and Lenient 
— Made Brigadier-General IT 7 

CHAPTER XV.— Brigadier-General. 
Hillyer's Enthusiastic Client — A Trap for Jeff. Thompson — First Newspaper de- 
scription of Grant — Occupies Paducah without Orders — Rawlins joins his 
Staff — How the General transacted Business — A Story of " Samaritan Ogles- 
by" — Grant has Independence and Opportunity 189 



Contents. xi 

CHAPTER XVI.— Belmont. 

PAGE 

Ordered to Hove at Last — Determines to Attack the Enemy— The Battle of Bel- 
mont begins — Enemy Driven, and his Camp Captured — "We'll cut our 
Way Out" — Grant lias a Narrow Escape— 1 ' Nigger wuf more to me" — Grant 
Delighted with his Troops 197 

CHAPTER XVII.— Fort Henry. 
Halleck's " Order Number Three "—Grant avoids the Appearance of Evil— His 
Loyalty to his Old Instructor — His Narrow Escape from Guerrillas— A 
Little Newspaper Rivalry — Deals with Fugitive-Slave Cases— Bitter Hos- 
tility of Contractors— An Expedition into Kentucky— " Who Stole the 
Honey ?" — Grant has Permission to Move — A New Rule for the Corre- 
spondents — The Gun-boats capture Fort Henry 205 

CHAPTER XVIIL— Donelson. 

Grant starts for Donelson— Invests it with an Inferior Force— Our Gun-boats 
damaged and repulsed — A Narrow Escape from Defeat — " Are their Hav- 
ersacks full?"—" Tell General Grant I'll do it "—The Stars and Stripes go 
up— Consternation in the Rebel Camp— An Intelligent Contraband's Infor- 
mation—Grant and Buckner correspond— Fort Donelson Surrenders— 
" I propose to move immediately upon your works"—" Compel me to ac- 
cept the Ungenerous and Unchivalrous Terms"— Wonder of the Confeder- 
ate Troops 21 • 

CHAPTER XIX.— Curbed. 

An Emphatic Rebuke to Buckner— A Great Panic in Nashville— Halleck guilty 
of a Joke— The North wild with Delight— Grant's Praise on all Tongues- 
Encounters Sherman and McPherson— Shabby Treatment from Halleck— 
Commands a New Expedition— A bad Fall from his Horse— Buell's Army 
approaching in the Rear 233 

CHAPTER XX.— Shiloh. 
A Rebel Council in the Woods— Sunday Morning Dawns— The Roar of Battle 
begins— Grant reaches the Field— Vigor of the Rebel Assault— Sherman 
wins Green Laurels—" I havn't despaired of whipping them"— Death of 
Albert Sidney Johnston— Union Troops make a Final Stand— The Night 
after the Battle— Second Day— " The last of them"— Beauregard's bitter 
Disappointment— The summing up of Shiloh— Hue and Cry against Grant. 243 

CHAPTER XXL— Shackled. 
Halleck removes him from command — The Journalists in the Field — A couple of 
Horse Stories— Halleck's snail-like Movement— Divulging Military Informa- 
tion—Grant demands a Defined Position—" You fought the Battle of 
Corinth"— The Guerrillas after Grant— The Fourth of July Dinner in 
Memphis — Halleck leaves Grant in command 237 

CHAPTER XXII. — Iuka and Corinth. 
An Order about Contrabands— The battle of Iuka— And Corinth— The historic 
Wisconsin Eagle — Grant occupies La Grange — Depredations by the 
Soldiers— The Humors of Cipher Telegraphing— The Country slow to appre- 
ciate Grant — Grant sets the Contrabands to work — History of the Jew 
Order— The President countermands it— A Grievance for Peace Democrats. 267 

CHAPTER XXIIL— Vicksburg— Seven Attempts. 
Purpose of Grant's movement — Vicksburg and its Approaches — Sherman or- 
dered to take it— The Rebels threaten Grant— And capture Holly Springs 
—He subsists on the Country — Sherman's Repulse at Chickasaw Bayou- 
Grant takes Command of the Front— A new Bed for the Mississippi— 
The Mississippi declines it— Toiling among the Swamps— Repulsed at 
Fort Pemberton— The Pleasures of Bayou Navigation— " I rather like the 

man." 2 ' 9 



xii Contents, 

CHAPTER XXIV.— All on NOTHING. 

Grant favoring Negro Regiments — His anxiety about Yicksburg — "You will 
Sleep here. Steele "—A New and Daring Plan— The Rebels frightened by 
ft Barge — The Queen passes their Batteries — Varied Capacity of each 
Regiment — Seven Transports run the Gantlet—" Where does he get his 
Whisky ?" — Porter's Repulse at Grand Gulf— Thorough Loyalty of the 
Negroes — The River crossed at last *93 

CHAPTER XXV.— The Dogs of Vail 
Grant's Baggage for the Campaign — MePherson charges the Rebel Rear — A 
Victory and a Speech— Grant enters Port Gibson— A Bridge built in Four 
Hours— The Requests of a Rebel Prisoner— Grierson's daring ( Javalry Raid — 
The Battle of Raymond — Grant cuts loose from his Base — The Battle of 
Jackson— Grant in the Capital of Mississippi— Why the Rebels burned a 
Hotel 

CHAPTER XXVI.— The Game at Bay. 
Grant intercepts a Rebel Dispatch— The Battle of Champion Hill— Grant 
reaches the Big Black — Lawier makes a brilliant Charge — The Game 
entering the Trap — Vicksburg invested — Two unsuccessful Assaults — 
A Truce for burying the Dead — The opposing Tickets converse—" A good 
Moral Drink"— Mine Explosion under Port Hill— "The Lord and Joe 
Johnston. " 31 ' 

CHAPTER XXVIL— Io Triumphe ! 
Tembeiton proposes to Capitulate — Grant meets him between the Lines — Result 
of the Interview — Grant's Instructions to his Pickets — The Union Army 
enters Vicksburg — Humors of the half-starved Rebels — The greatest 
Capture ever made — Sherman disperses Johnston's Army — Abraham 
Lincoln's Letter to Grant— " A grateful Acknowledgment '—" Vou were 
right and I was wrong " — Monument in Memory of the Surrender 329 

CHAPTER XXVIII.— Promoted. 

Major-General in the Regular Army — A Lesson for Steamboat Men — Grant 

deals with a Cotton Buyer — Soldiers to Vote as they pleased — His Views on 

the Slavery Question — A very moderate Ambition — Grant feted in 

. Memphis— Visits Xew Orleans— A bad Fall from his Horse — Inflicts no 

Death Penalties 341 

CHAPTER XXIX.— A Xew Field. 

The Peril in Tennessee — The whole "West under Grant — Hard Journey to Chat- 
tanooga — Phil. Sheridan becoming known — The Army almost Starving — 
The Town invested by Bragg — Grant seizes Lookout Valley — The Charge 
of the Mule Brigade— The Question of Supplies settled— Grant prepares for 

Battle . . 351 

CHAPTER XXX.— Chattanooga. 

The Blue-Coats mislead Grant — First and Second Days' Fighting— Hooker car- 
ries Lookout Mountain — Third Day — Sherman Fights Stubbornly — The 
Rebels roll down Rocks — The Grand Charge begins— The Troops carry the 
Rifle- Pits — And go up Missionary Ridge — " How do you do, Southern Con- 
federacy ?"' — End of the "Wonderful Battle — Bragg retreats into Georgia — 
Longstreet is defeated at Knoxville 361 

CHAPTER XXXL— Lieutexaxt-Gexeral. 
A Mountain Ride in "Winter — A Letter about the Presidency — The General 
visits St. Louis — Declines to make any Speeches — His Views on Strategy — 
The Grade of Lieutenant-General — Views of Leading Senators — Lincoln 
seuds for Grant's Friend—" This Presidential Grub "—Letter to Sherman 
and MePherson — Sherman sends a Reply — Grant's Reception in "Washing- 
ton—Visits the Army of the Potomac—" Enough of the Show Business." . 373 



COOTENTS. xiii 

CHAPTER XXXIL— Wilderness. 

PAGE 

The General begins hi3 Task — - ; Mr. G-rant an Obstinate Man " — Northern Peace 
" Party growing — Lincoln and Grant correspond —What the General deter- 
mined to do — Why he chose the Overland Route — The Army once more in 
Motion— Battle of the Wilderness Begins— Terrible but Indecisive Conflict 

.Second Dav — Lee's Narrow Escape — Grant Whittles and Smokes — A 

Talk before the Camp Fire — A Leader found at last — A Corresrxmdent 
comes to Grief ~ "- ' 

CHAPTER XXXIII. — Sp jItsylvania to Cold Harbor. 
•• Xot a Retreating Man "—Sheridan ordered to March—- g Killed— 
u Fight it Out on This Line"— Hancock's Splendid Charge — Orders from 
Meade and Lee— How Grant received a Stranger— -The feeling in 
Meade's Arrnv — Sheridan within the Enemy's Lines — Grant withdraw 
from North Anna— Terrible fighting at Cold Harbor— Relative strength 
of Grant and Lee 401 

CHAPTER XXXIV. — Before Petersburg. 
Lincoln's View of the Situation — Grant Changes his Base to the James— Smith'3 
Failure at Petersburg — Butler "in a Bottle strongly Corked ' ; — Head- 
quarters at Citv Point— A Letter from Winfield Scott— Early Invade3 
Man-land — General McPherson is Killed— A Letter from hi3 Aged Grand- 
mother — " You must throw away that Cigar " 413 

CHAPTER XXXV.— Sheridan's Ride. 
A Mine is Exploded— Hor: nes in the Crater — Sheridan sent to the 
Shenandoah— Great Explosion at City Point— Fighting on the Weldon 
Railwav — Sherman captures Atlanta — Sheridan is instructed to "go in ' 
He sends Earlv M whirling " Southward — Grant's Views on Soldiers' Voting 
— His Operations in September — Early attacks Sheridan's Army — Sheridan 
arrives and routs him — " Up from the South at break of day : ' 423 

CHAPTER XXXVL— The Beginning- of t::z End. 
Grant refuses to argue with Lee — End of the active Fall Campaign— Humor of 
the Soldiers in the Field — Hood proposes to Invade the North — M How 
Sherman Marched Down to the Sea "—Thomas's splendid Victory at Nash- 
ville— Butler's Failure at Fort Fisher— Grant in Washington and New 
York Philadelphians present him a House — Three Rebel Peace Commis- 
sioners—Confer with Lincoln and Seward — Lee proposes a Peace Confer- 
ence — Grant asks Instructions — Stanton's ungenerous Conduct- 437 

CHAPTER XXXVIL— Attention— March ! 
Sherman in the Carolinas — Sheridan Finishes up Early — Abraham Lincoln at 
Citv Point — Grant's Orders for the Final Campaign— Lee's Repulse at Fort 
Steadman — Sherman arrives for Conference — Grant's Hopes and Fears 
—His final Orders for the March ^ l 

CHAPTER XXXVHL— Richmond Falls. 

Lincoln's Farewell Words— •• I now feel like Ending the Matter ''—Sheridan 
driven back to D in widdie— Fights the Battle of Five Forks— Evening Scenes 
in his Camp — Grant breaks the Petersburg Lines — A. P. Hill is Killed— 
Jefferson Davis's Flight — "And Great was the Fall of it" — Lincoln's Re- 
ception in Richmond 4o9 

CHAPTER XXXIX— The Hot Chasi. 

" Siftin Souf. Sah"— Sheridan on Lee's Front — "Our Army is Ruined, I fear — 
Grant goes forward to Sheridan — Gallant Exploit of Read's Brigade- 
Battle of Sailor's Creek— Important Letter from Lincoln — Sheridan and the 
Old Virginian— A Friend of the Familv— Correspondence between Grant 
and Lee— Fac- simile of Lee's First Reply— The General thinks the •• Job 
finished 



xiv Contents. 

CHAPTER XL.— The Last Ditch. 

PAGE 

Lee Determines " to be frank " — Grant receives an Important Letter — Sheridan 
in at the Death — "South Carolinians never surrender" — Grant and Lee 
have an Interview — It results in Lee's Capitulation — Satisfaction of Lee's 
Soldiers—" I Want to Go Home "— " The Old, Familiar Faces "— " All Quite 
along the Potomac." 43 1 

CHAPTER XLL— The Assassination. 

Relative Strength of Grant and Lee — Grant's total Losses in 1 8G4-65 — Compiled 
from the Official Records — Sheridan's Shenandoah Valley Losses — Rebel 
Prisoners Captured by Grant — The Generalship he displayed — His Feeling 
at the Close — Attends a Cabinet Meeting — Abraham Lincoln is Murdered — 
Profound Grief of the Country 49 1 

CHAPTER XLIL— The French in Mexico. 
Frantic Demands for Severity — Sherman's Treaty Disapproved — Grant Recom- 
mends Lee's Pardon — Farewell Order to the Army — Reception in New 
York — Sheridan on Mexican Affairs — Grant's Letter to the President — His 
Hostility to the French Invasion — Sheridan longs to cross the Rio Grande 
— Another Strong Letter from Grant 501 

CHAPTER XLIIL— Laureled. 

""Where none can follow you" — Grant at the Chicago Fair — He visits New 
England and Canada — " Captain Grant " returns to Galena — The Little 
White Pacer — The General's Southern Tour — His Report to the President 
— The Mexican Question again — Grant's Instructions to Sheridan — " This 
Rebel Emigration Scheme." 511 

CHAPTER XLIT.— " My Policy." 
The Richmond " Examiner " suppressed — Johnson removes the Disability — The 
" General " Bill in Congress — Grant appointed to the Position — Massacre of 
Unionists in New Orleans — The North flames with Wrath — "Swinging 
'round the Circle " — Johnson's Violent Harangues — A Droll Suit for Libel — 
" Prodigiously glad to get Home.".. 521 

CHAPTER XLY.— Reconstruction. 
More Correspondence on Mexican Matters — Sheridan on the " Imperial Bucca- 
neer" — Grant on Sending Troops in to Maryland — He refuses to go to 
Mexico — Favors Negro Suffrage — Recommends Martial Law in Texas — The 
Real Issue on Reconstruction — Grant before the Impeachment Commit- 
tee — He wants Civil Law established — And Stanton and Sheridan retained 
— President removes Stanton — Grant's Protest 531 

CHAPTER XLYL— War Office. 

" Say Nothing of Them " — Surrenders War Office to Stanton — His able Admin- 
istration of it — Enormous Savings for the Government — A Letter from Phil. 
Sheridan — Some of Grant's Personal Traits 543 

CHAPTER XLVIL— White House. 
A National Republican Convention — Its Declaration of Principles — Grant 

Nominated for the Presidency — " Let us have Peace." 549 

SKETCH OF SCHUYLER COLFAX. 
Birth and Ancestry — Founds the South Bend " Register " — Nominated and De- 
feated for Congress — A Representative — Speech on Kansas — Views at the 
Outbreak of the War — Elected Speaker of the House — A Tour through 
the Mining States — Nominated for the Yice-Presidency 553 



Illustrations. 

TO FACE PAGE 

1. Portrait of General Grant, 1S63. Ox Steel. — 

2. Illustrated Title-Page (Grant's Birthplace} — 

3. Grant's Boyhood in* Georgetown, Ohio 64 

4. Cadet Grant at West Point. 1S39-43 76 

5. Bre%-kt Second-Lieutenant Grant. 1S45 100 

6. Grant's Ride for Ammunition at Monterey. 1346 110 

7. Crossing the Isthmus. 1S52 140 

8. Captain Grant's Residences in and about St. Louis. 1S55-9 151 

9. Hardscrabble, Built by Captain Grant 156 

10. Boggs and Grant, St. Louis. 1S59 160 

11. Captain Grant in Galena. 1S60-61 172 

12. " Nigger Wuf More to Me.'' 202 

13. Grant at SniLon — Death of Carson 251 

14 " Only Served Him Eight/ 1 268 

15. " Bress de Lord ! " 802 

16. General John A. Rawlins, Chief of Staff 346 

17. The Charge at Mission Ridge 363 

IS. General Grant's Father and Mother. 1S63 336 

19. B You Must Throw Away that Cigar, Sir." 422 

20. Coolness of Grant at the City Point Explosion 426 

21. Mrs. Grant. 1S63 445 

22. The Lost Cause. 490 

23. Eeturning to Galena. 1S65 514 

24. Eesidences since the War 530 

25. The Chicago Contention Nominates Grant for thb Presidency. 186S 551 

26. Portrait of Schuyler Colfax. On Steel 553 



^AC-j5l 



5IMILES. 

PAGE 

1. 1755— Noah Grant's Handwriting 27 

2. 1859— Business Card of Boggs & Grant 159 

3. 1859 — Captain Grant's Application for St. Louis County Engineership 164-5 

4 1S62 — Fort Donelson. — " I Propose to Move Immediately upon your Works."'' 223-9 

5. 1S62 — Buckner Accepts the "Ungenerous and Unchiyalbous Terms." 230-1 

6. 1863— Letter from Lincoln to Grant, after Yicksburg 33S-9 

7. 1865 — Lee's Reply to Grant's Demand for Surrender. 1S65 479 

; 8, 186S— A Letter from Sheridan 5*7 



Maps. 

PAGE 

1. Belmont, Henry, Donelson, Shiloh, Corinth, and Iuka 193 

2. The Field and the Union Lines at Shiloh 24(5 

3. The Seven Campaigns against Vicksburg 230 

4. The Chattanooga Campaign 356 

5. The Virginia Campaign of 1864. 393 

6. The Final Campaign against Lee ^ 



PERSONAL HISTORY OF ULYSSES S. GRANT. 



CHAPTER I. 

GENEALOGY. 

It is the fashion among modern American biographers to 
impute Scotch or Scotch-Irish Iblood to their heroes, and to 
trace their lineage from the illustrious defenders of London- 
derry. The subject of this volume has not escaped the 
common lot. Indeed, circumstances conspire to thrust it 
upon him. Not only has he the blue eyes, fair complexion, 
and sandy beard of the typical Scotch face, but he bears the 
name of an ancient Scottish clan, to whose chosen motto, 
"Stand fast, stand firm, stand sure," not a Scot of them 
was ever more true than he. Hence, his multifarious biog- 
raphers* report him of Scotch descent, and a tradition to the 
same effect has been cherished in his own family. 

But the record disproves the tradition. Richard A. 
Wheeler, of Stonington, Connecticut, has searched out the 
Grant genealogy, and is confident he can establish every 
link in a court of justice. Running back for more than 
two hundred and fifty years, it 'is without a trace of Scotch 
blood, and leaves no doubt that our General is of English 
Puritan lineage. 

The summer of 1630, ten years after the Pilgrim Fathers 
landed at Plymouth Rock, witnessed an unprecedented 
immigration to the New England Colony. Between Feb- 
ruary and August arrived seventeen ships, loaded with 
families, bringing their cattle, furniture, and other worldly 

* While this book was passing through the press, five or six Lives of Grant 
were already out, and twelve more announced to appear within a few weeks. 

B 



18 Matthew Grant lands at Naktasket. D G3 °- 

goods. The Mary and John, which sailed from Plymouth, 
England, on the twentieth of March, was a ship of four 
hundred tons, and brought one hundred and forty passen- 
gers. They were emigrants from Dorsetshire, Devon , and 
Somerset, principally young bachelors or young married 
couples. 

I. Among the latter were Matthew Grant, and Priscilla, 
his wife — the earliest known ancestors of General Grant.* 
They were each twenty-nine years old, and they brought 
with them an infant daughter. Probably they had no 
Scotch blood, for they came from Dorsetshire, one of the 
three English counties farthest from Scotland, and whose 
residents were therefore known as " West-country people." 

An old record describes the passengers by the Mary 
and John as " a very godly and religious company, many 
of them being persons of note or figure, and dignified by 
the title of Master, with which but few in those days were." 
Two were Wareham and Maverick, both eminent preach- 
ers. The voyage was uneventful ; but it seems to have 
been a busy time for the clergymen. Roger Clap, who was 
on board, kept a diary, which illustrates the Puritan mean- 
ing of "comfortably," in a phrase suggesting that of the 
venerable lady who once declared, " I am so old now that I 
shall never enjoy much more trouble in this wori d." Roger 
sums up : "So we came, by the good hand of God, through 
the deep comfortably, having preaching and expounding 
of the Word of God every day for ten weeks together, by 
our ministers." 

On the thirtieth of May the ship landed at Nantasket, 
a peninsula on the southeast side of the narrow entrance 
to the harbor of Boston, and nine miles from that city. It 
now holds the quaint little hamlet of Hull, hiding from the 
sea between two hills, and casting but sixteen or seven- 
teen votes, for which political poveily it hath been ridi- 
culed many a time and oft . Says a Massachusetts election 



* Four years later, the ancestors ciT his friend and lieutenant, William T. Sher- 
man, came from Essex County, England, and also settled in the Massachusetts Bay 
Colony. 



i 630 -] Milk One Penny a Quart. 19 

proverb, "As goes Hull, so goes the State;" and his Ma- 
jesty, the Breakfast-Table Autocrat — Now let us sing, Long 
live the King — thus improves the Essay on Man : — 

"All are but parts of one stupendous Hull." 

The Nantasket settlers, who were colonists of ten years' 
standing, hospitably entreated the new-comers, until they 
could cross in little boats and land at Boston. Captain 
Squib, master of the Mary and Jo7m, though a good sailor, 
was not willing to venture his ship into the intricacies of a 
harbor of which he knew nothing. But he had agreed to 
take his immigrants to Boston ; and the colonial authorities 
held a prejudice, not yet altogether extinct in New England, 
in favor of having agreements lived up to. So Captain 
Squib's passengers brought suit against him, and recovered 
damages, for not being landed at their destined port. 

Thirteen days after the immigrants reached Nantasket, 
Governor Winthrop arrived at Salem, then boasting but ten 
buildings, where he found a frame house awaiting him. In 
those days milk sold for one penny a quart ; and colonists 
wrote home glowing descriptions of the beauty and fertility 
of New England. One of their letters records that "by 
planting thirteen gallons of corn, one can raise three hun- 
dred and sixty-four bushels, and every bushel can be sold 
to the Indians for beaver worth eighteen shillings. So of 
these gallons of corn, worth six shillings and eightpence, 
one might have about three hundred and eighty- seven 
pounds sterling." 

The "West-country people" settled four miles from 
Boston, at Matapan. This Indian appellation they changed 
to Dorchester, in memory of the county town of their own 
English Dorsetshire, which like most British names ending 
in "chester,""* is the site of an old Roman encampment. 
So the memory of Imperial Csesar, dead and turned to clay, 
invaded the domain of the Sachem of "Mos-chuset," and 
changed its nomenclature. 

Dorchester is now a pleasant Boston suburb of half a 

* Castra, camp. 



20 On - the Verge of Starvation. [ 1G3 °- 

dozen villages and hundreds of generous residences with 
exquisite grounds. As Emerson says of England, it is 
finished with the pencil instead of the plow. One house 
is still standing which was built in 1633, and at the "rais- 
ing" of which, perhaps, Matthew Grant assisted. 

In his day, Dorchester Plantation was a rude settlement 
of a few log cabins, straggling over most of the territory now 
embraced in Milton, Canton, Stoughton, Sharon, and South 
Boston. The salt marshes afforded excellent subsistence 
for the famishing cattle of the immigrants, but they them- 
selves suffered for want of food. Their first meal was of 
fish without any bread, and for months, they endured 
many hardships. Says Roger Clap : " The place was a wil- 
derness. Fish was a good help to me and to others. Bread 
was so scarce that I thought the very crusts from my fa- 
ther's table would have been sweet ; and when I could 
have meal and salt and water boiled together, I asked. 
' Who would ask for better V " 

Among the settlers of Dorchester, were several elderly 
gentlemen of good estate in England, three men of military 
experience, and two stockholders of the London Company 
which held the Massachusetts Bay Charter. The Charter 
had been drafted for a trading company rather than for a 
government, so the control of the settlement vested only in 
the stockholders. But the Puritans would not permit Dor- 
chester to be governed by two men, and the Court of Massa- 
chusetts Bay bestowed freemanship upon twenty -four col- 
onists within a month after the arrival of the Mary dm! 
John. Freemanship was an important endowment, secur- 
ing to its recipients large tracts of land and making them 
members of the General Court. This unique tribunal was 
a sort of colonial town meeting for local government," as 
the representative system was not yet in vogue and the col- 
ony was almost a pure democracy. The principal qualifi- 
cation for freemanship seems to have been piety, or at least 
church membership ; and Matthew Grant received it, with 
many others, after he had lived in America for one year. 

♦The Massachusetts Legislature is still popularly known as the " General Court." 



less.] A Quaint Old Epitaph. 21 

"Writers in 1633, describe Dorchester Plantation as having 
"abundant hay-ground, fair corn-fields, and pleasant gar- 
dens, with many cattle, sheep, and swine," though the in- 
habitants still subsisted largely npon fish. 

Among the settlers was Humphrey Atherton, who, a 
train band captain eke had been in famous London town. 
He became a leading military spirit of the settlement, for pro- 
motion is rapid in new countries, and his ambition was ulti- 
mately gratified by a major-generalship. He was the first 
captain of the "Ancient and Honorable Artillery," a milita- 
ry organization of note still existing in Boston. In the 
third or fourth year of the colony he died. His memory 
was honored by an imposing military funeral — which 
Matthew Grant doubtless attended — and his tombstone 
was illuminated by the quaint epitaph : 

" Here lies our Captain and Major; of Suffolk was wi'thall ; 
A goodly Magistrate was He, and Major -generall. 

Two Troops of Horses with Him came such Worth his Love did crave ; 
Ten Companies of Foot also mourning marched to his Grave. 
Let all that read be sure to keep the Faith as He has done ; 
With Christ He lives now crowned ; His Name is Humphrey Atherton." 

When Matthew had been four years in America, Pris- 
cilla, his wife, died, and left four children, the youngest an 
infant. The next year, 1635, nearly half of the first Dor- 
chester settlers went to establish new homes in the wilder- 
ness of the Connecticut Valley, far beyond the confines of 
civilization. Early historians give as reasons for this second 
migration, a "hankering after new lands," which were 
fertile and grassy, while those of Dorchester were rooky 
and heavily wooded ; better opportunities for trading in furs 
with the Indians ; and fears lest Connecticut should fall into 
the hands of the Dutch, who were attempting to settle it. 

Matthew Grant — now restless and lonely — went with the 
rest. Reaching the present site of Windsor, half-way be- 
tween Springfield and Hartford, and already settled by an 
offshoot from the Plymouth Colony, they were entertained 
by the pioneers, and, after examining the country, deter- 
mined to stay. The settlers from Plymouth resented this as 
ungenerous ; but the Dorchester people persisted, and even 



22 Fighting Famine and Indians. [1636. 

drove away another party of twenty from Massachusetts 
Bay, likewise desirous of remaining. 

Matthew Grant and his companions spent the summer in 
felling trees and building log-houses. Their families re- 
mained behind in Dorchester, and in October, several of 
the men went back for them. Sending their household 
goods by ship around through Long Island Sound, to come 
up the Connecticut, they started on their return to Windsor, 
by land, the babies and invalids on horseback, and men 
and women walking, and driving their cattle through the 
wilderness. 

Winter set in early. By the middle of November the 
river was fast frozen, and the snow deep. The overland 
emigrants suffered much, and were obliged to leave their 
cattle in the woods, where many died, while the rest lived 
on acorns until spring. Reaching the Windsor settlement, 
the travelers were apj)alled to learn that the ship, with 
their provisions, was imprisoned in the river below. Seven- 
teen went back to Massachusetts Bay in despair, while 
those who remained subsisted chiefly on nuts and acorns. 
At length a party of seventy — men, women, and children — 
started for the ship, which had frozen in twenty miles 
above the river 1 s mouth, that they might live on her sup- 
plies. But before they reached her, she was released by 
the spring thaw ; so they returned to their settlement, 
which at first they called New Dorchester, but finally named 
Windsor. 

They carried their lives in their hands. Like all frontier- 
men, they were reckless of their own safety, but prudent 
for their wives and children. As soon as their families 
arrived, they built a palisade, a quadrangle three-quarters 
of a mile long, to protect them against Indians. Those who 
had houses or lots outside, left them and moved in. Matthew 
Grant had cleared six acres, but abandoned it all except the 
little piece on which his log-dwelling stood, within the 
palisade, and next to the old Windsor town-house. For 
ninety years the colonists suffered constantly from Indians. 
At home, in the field, in the meeting-house, nowhere were 
they secure. 



1637.] SURVEYOR, TOWN CLERK, AND ClIURCH CLERK. 23 

" Honest Matthew Grant " filled a large place in the set- 
tlement. He was elected one of two surveyors, to overlook 
the construction and preservation of highways, and con- 
tinned in that office for the greater part of his life. The 
roads and farm boundaries were very crooked and involved, 
and real estate plentiful and cheap. After working hard all 
day at surveying, Matthew used to say, ' ' I would not 
accept all the land I have bounded to-day as pay for my 
day's work." 

He was also town clerk for many years. His auto- 
graph constantly appears on the Windsor records, to au- 
thenticate public documents. In 1637, the driven-out 
Massachusetts people sold their tract to this colony. Ap- 
pended to the deed is a long note describing the land, and 
signed "Matthew Grant, Recorder." He seems to have 
taken a just pride in his own integrity. In a land suit, in 
1675, in a deposition still preserved in the State archives at 
Hartford, he testified in somewhat nebulous rhetoric : — 

"If any question my uprightness and legal acting about our town affairs, 
that I have been employed in a measure of land and getting out of lots of 
men which has been done by me from our first beginning here come next 
September is forty yere. I never got out any land to any man until I knew 
he had a grant to it from the townsmen, and town's approbation, or to 
recording after the book was turned. I am chose near twenty-three years 
since. I can say with a cleare conscience I have been careful to do nothing 
upon one man's desire." 

He was a Puritan of the Puritans. A schism arose in 
the church about the old minister, Wareham, who had come 
with the colonists from Dorchester, and, in his old age, was 
thought a little rigid and narrow even for those days. So 
a party of townspeople established a parish under a younger 
and more liberal divine named Woodbridge. They de- 
sired to have this entered upon the town records; but 
Matthew Grant, apparently alarmed at the degeneracy and 
growing impiety of the times, refused to write it. The new 
church people, however, were men of authority, and seem 
to have demanded the book to enter the fact themselves. 
At all events, the record stands in a strange handwrit- 
ing, with a note appended in Matthew's well-known cki- 



24 Matthew Grant's Church Record. t 1681 

rograpliy explaining the affair, and indirectly protesting 
against it. 

The Windsor records, in the library of the Connecticnt 
Historical Society, show that he was clerk of the church 
until his death. Matthew' s brief business-like entries are 
open to criticism, for he studied conciseness in letters as 
well as in words, and did not put himself to unnecessary 
trouble in the use of the parts of speech. The sexes are 
classified as "menkind," and u womenkind," and daughter 
is given as "darter." Dates of sacraments, baptisms, church 
admissions, suspensions, and indebtedness to the deacons 
for bread and wine, are recorded. There are also allusions 
to the flood of 1639, and to a subscription for sufferers in 
King Philip's War, to which Matthew and his son both 
contributed. There was little fighting south of Springfield ; 
but it was at Hadley, only a few miles above, that Indians 
attacked while the settlers were at church, and an old man 
with white flowing beard — whom they at first supposed an 
angel, but who proved to be one of the fugitive judges of 
Charles the First — suddenly appeared from the forest and 
led the worshipers to victory. 

Matthew' s immediate successor as church clerk, was less 
concise and business-like, but more sentimental, and wrote 
invocations like this: "1685. The Lord make the next 
year a good year." ' ' 1688. Not so much as one added to the 
church this year, and as many died out of it as were added 
the year before. The good Lord awaken and humble us !" 

Among the passengers by the Mary and Jolin was Wil- 
liam Rockwell, an elderly man of good estate, who brought 
Susannah, his wife, and eight children. He also came to 
Windsor, where he was first deacon of the church. In 1640 
he died. Five years later, and ten years after the loss of 
his first wife, Matthew Grant was married to Susannah 
Rockwell. He was forty-four years old, and she forty- 
three, and they began housekeeping with the fair start 
of twelve children. They lived together twenty-one years. 
She died November 14, 1666, and he December 16, 1681, at 
the age of eighty, outliving her fifteen years, and spending 
the close of his life with his youngest son, John. 



i^4.] An Umbrella as a Weapon. 25 

II. Samuel, Matthew's second son, was born in Dorches- 
ter, November 12, 1631. When four years old he removed 
with his father to Windsor, where he lived and died. He 
left eight children, all bearing Biblical names. 

III. Samuel (second), first child of the above, was born 
in Windsor, April 20, 1659. On coming to manhood, he 
moved to East Windsor, just across the river. There he 
lived and died, leaving nine children, of whom seven bore 
Biblical names. 

IY. Noah, first child of the above by a second marriage, 
was born in Windsor, December 16, 1692. During his life- 
time the portion of Windsor in which he resided was set off to 
Tolland. From his wife' s family descended Samuel Hunting- 
ton, one of the first Supreme Judges and afterward Governor 
of Ohio. He resided near Painesville, in that State, and a 
story, at least entertaining, has been handed down, that once, 
riding homeward through the woods just before dark, he 
was set upon by a pack of wolves. He had no weapon but 
a great umbrella. Whenever his snarling pursuers came too 
near, he would suddenly spread this open and send them 
flying back. Then putting spurs to his fleet horse, he out- 
stripped them for a few minutes. Thus he finally got home 
in safety, bearing only the frame and shreds of his opportune 
umbrella. 

Y. Noah (second), eldest child of the above, was born 
in Tolland, July 12, 1718. He married Susannah Delano, of 
the family from which Columbus Delano, late a Representa- 
tive in Congress from Ohio, is descended. About 1750 Noah 
moved to the adjoining town of Coventry. Soon after began 
the final struggle between the French and English for su- 
premacy on the American Continent, in which he and his 
brother Solomon both served. 

The old French and Indian War of our great-grand- 
fathers ! — how dim and remote the antiquity, in which it 
now seems hidden ! The first blood was shed in Western 
Pennsylvania, under Major George Washington, in 1754. 
The next year occurred the ambush and slaughter of the 
English and Americans, under Braddock, ten miles from 
Pittsburg, in which every officer but Washington, now a 



Solomon Grant maris his Will. t 1735 - 

colonel, was killed or wounded. One night a week later, in 
the deep woods, by a glowing torchlight, the young American 
colonel read the funeral service of the English Church over 
the corpse of Braddock. Four years after came the dramatic 
battle of the Heights of Abraham, in which Wolfe and Mont- 
calm gave up their lives, and won a sure place in history. 

Before entering the service, Solomon Grant, who was a 
bachelor, thirty years old, made his will, giving his real 
estate to Noah, or, in the event of Noah's death, to his eld- 
est son, and so on in entail forever. 

The curious document ran thus : — 

In the i God, Amen, the eighth day of September, a. p. 17' 

I, Sol ant of Coventry, in the County of Windham and Colony 

at, in New England, being about going on the expedition against 

. and also of perfect mind and memory. Thanks be to God there- 

: :-. calli _ mind the mortality of my body, and knowing that it is ap- 

die. do make and ordain this my last Will and 

3 to s iy, Principally, and first of all— I give and recoin- 

me:: ". m; S -til into the hands of God that gave it. and my body I recommend 

. - be buried in : Christian burial, at the discretion of my 

Executor, nothing doubting but at the General Resurrection I shall receive 

the b gain, by the mighty power i :' God, and as touching such worldly 

Est ' . itli it hath pleased God to bless me in this life 

I give, 1 - . and dispose of the sam . in the following manner and form, 

Inu -_ sand devise unto my well-beloved Brother, Noah Grant, 

of my real estate during his natural lire. At his de< - 

I give the who! f said estate to nrj said brother's oldest son then surviv- 

; _•. an I it bis decease to the next oldest male heir, and so on, to be an 

..tail, in manner aforesaid, successively from one generation to another 

to the latest posl 

I give and bequeath unto my well-beloved Brother, Adoniram 
Is and funeral expenses ... ■ ; lid, and also he paying 
what I shall h .eath, the whole of my movable est 

Iter Z give and bequeath unto my well-beloved Sister, Martha Price, 
one hundred pounds in old tenor bill - - lit, to be paid out of my movable 

estal . 

Item. I give and bequeath to my well-beloved brothers, Benjamin and 
a Buell, a of them twenty pounds, in old tenor bills of credit, to be 
out of my mova Le est 

I give and bequeath to my "Weil-beloved sist :\ Abigal Buell, ten 
pounds in old tenor bills of credit, to be paid out of my movable estate. 
Item. I give and bequeath unto my well-beloved Brother, Samuel Buell, 



Noah Osabt's Ha^dweiti^g. 



27 



-. -\ f. ' 1 








x 



■ 



\ 




n 1 1 



<; 



z 
- 






a 

z 
z 




28 Solomon axd No An Grant Killed. [1^8. 

five pounds, in old tenor bills of credit, to be paid out of my movable 
estate. 

Item. I give and bequeath to my well-beloved Sister, Hannah Kimball, 
five pounds in old tenor bills of credit, to be paid out of my movable 
estate. 

Item. I give and bequeath unto the Second Society of Coventry afore- 
said two hundred pounds in old tenor bills of credit, for the use and benefit 
of the School in said Society, to be paid out of my movable estate. 

All the above Legacies to be paid by my Executor after named, within the 
space of one year after my decease. 

I do hereby constitute, make, and ordain, my well-beloved Brother, Adon- 
iram Grant, to be my sole Executor of this my last "Will and Testament, and 
I do hereby disallow, revoke, and disannul all and every other former Testa- 
ments, Legacies, Bequests, and Executors, by me, in any way before 
named, Ratifying and Confirming this and no other to be my last "Will and 
Testament. 

In witness whereof I have hereunto set my hand and seal the day and 
year above written. 

SOLOMOX GrRART, [L.S.] 

Signed, Sealed, Published, Pronounced, 
and Declared by the said Solomon 
Grant, as his last "Will and Testament, 
in the presence of us, the Subscribers, 

PniNEAS Strong, Je., 

Caleb Faiechild, 

Ozias Strong. 

Tlie inventory accompanying gave the property as about 
nine hundred pounds sterling. The "brothers were both 
killed in an engagement near Oswego, New York, Septem- 
ber 20, 1756. 

Noah and his brother were in different companies, 
Noah a captain, and Solomon a lieutenant. The original 
muster-roll of Noalr s company is still preserved in his own 
handwriting, headed by his own name as captain, and dated 
March 26, 1755. There was no military prejudice against 
color in those days, for two privates on the muster-roll are 
designated: "Prince, negro," and "Jupiter, negro.' 

YI. Noah (third), son of the above, was born in Coventry, 
Connecticut, on the twenty -third of June, 1748. The subse- 
quent change in our calendar from Old Style to New, brought 
his birthday on the fourth of July, to the keen satisfaction of 
Noah, who had inherited the patriotic and military tastes of 



1790.] Noah Grajstc nr the Revolution. 

his father. After marryiiis Anna Buell. of the farnilv from 
which sprang General Don Carlos Buell Noah went into 
the army at the first drum-beat of the conflict for Indepen- 
dence. He was a lieutenant of militia at the battle of Lex- 
ington, and served through the entire Revolutionary War. 
coming out with the rank of captain. 

When he returned from the war. the Connecticut Valley, 
which, a hundred and fifty years earlier, his ancestor Mat- 
thew had found a howling wilderness, was dotted with 
towns, villages, and farms, and filled with an industrious, 
thrifty people. Brissot. who wrote in 1788, say- : " Nature 
and art have spread out all their treasures to make it the 
Paradise of the United States. Nevertheless, in this 31 
there is much land to sell What is the reason \ Thepr ' - 
cipaZ (me is thedes ■ iy ration to die West. The de- 

sire to do better has empoisoned the joys even of the inL 
itants of Connecticut.' 5 

Noah Grant returned to a desolate home. His wife had 
died, leaving him two son?. Solomon and Peter. Undei 
this affliction, aggravated by the restlessness which army 
life leaves, in 1790 he succumbed to the prevailing emigra- 
tion fever, and removed to Westmoreland County. Pennsyl- 
vania, settling near Greensbnrg, on the Monongahela River. 
Twenty miles below was Pittsburg, then a frontier post of 
only live hundred inhabitants, but already boasting a news- 
paper. The Pittsburg G : : . which is still in exist 
The people dwelt in log-h us s, and there was a little 
garrison at Port Pitt, where the Monongahela and Alle- 
ghany unit I form the Ohio. 

In the French and Indian War. a certain Major Grant 
with eight hundred Scot?, had fought the Indians on 
acclivity east of the town, which is called Grant's Hill to 
this day. Hence possibly the tradition c :' Scotch descent in 
the Grant family, who may have erroneously supposed this 
Scotch major of Pittsburg to : I their kith and kin. 

A rough mail carriage had just be^run to run to Philadel- 
phia. though there was no turnpike, and roads were horri- 
ble. Most travelers journeyed on horseback, spending the 
nights at taverns, where lodging and meals were twenty- 



30 Settles in Western Pennsylvania. [lis*. 

five cents each. The horseback trip from Philadelphia oc- 
cupied eight or ten days. Freights over the same route 
cost forty-five shillings per hundred- weight. 

Westmoreland County is a rough mountainous region, 
whose people, though at the outset of the Revolution on 
the verge of war with their Virginia neighbors about the 
boundary between the two States, and during its progress 
suffering greatly from Indian attacks, had been intensely 
loyal to the national cause. After the war, the great tide of 
emigration from New England to the Northwest Territory 
(Ohio), swept directly through it. Emigrants would cross the 
Alleghanies, and then embark in canoes on the u Yock " or 
Youghiogheny River, float down it and the Monongahela to 
Pittsburg, stop there a few hours for supplies, and then 
glide down the Ohio into the deeper wilderness beyond. 

The people of Westmoreland lived largely upon venison 
and potatoes, though cattle were plentiful, and the new land 
produced corn abundantly. They shipped cider and beer 
down the river to Ohio and Kentucky, and made enormous 
quantities of whisky, supplying much of the South and West. 
They raised flax from which the women wove clothing for 
their entire families. Iron mines in the vicinity of Pittsburg 
were already attracting attention ;* glass and iron manufac- 
tories were springing up, and some oil wells had been dis- 
covered. They were not deemed valuable, however, but 
simply regarded as curiosities. The woods still abounded 
in whip-poor-wills, owls, bears, and panthers, and often in 
hostile Indians. There was no money in the region, and its 
entire business was conducted through barter. 

Such was the country and society in which Noah Grant 
settled. On the fourth of March, 1792, two yesirs after his 
arrival, he married a widow named Rachael Kelly, by whom 
he had seven children, five of whom are now living, their 
ages ranging from sixty-five to seventy-five years. 

VII. Jesse Root Grant, fourth child of the above, was 
born January 23, 1794. He was named for Jesse Root, 
many years Chief-Justice of the Supreme Court of Connec- 
ticut. 

Noah Grant, still restless, lived only nine years in Penn- 



1799.] Removes to the Ohio "Wilderness. 31 

sylvania. In April, 1799, again lie folded his tent like the 
Arab, and as silently stole away — into a new wilderness. 
Wagons were then little used ; the river, alive with travel 
and commerce, was the great thoroughfare. At high water 
crafts went from Pittsburg to the present site of Cairo, 
at the mouth of the Ohio, in twenty days, but in summer 
the voyage sometimes consumed ten weeks. 

The river vessels floated with the current, were flat-bot- 
tomed, and of two classes : trading boats, bound for Ken- 
tucky and New Orleans, and loaded with whisky, flour, 
apples, cider, apple-brandy, earthenware, iron, and glass ; 
and family boats, of emigrants, carrying farming utensils, 
household goods, cattle, horses, men, women, and children. 

In a boat of the latter class, Noah Grant and his wife 
embarked with their five young children, a horse, two cows, 
cooking utensils, and all the rest of their worldly goods. 
Their craft was snug, and a part of it was roofed. Bidding 
adieu to their old home, they floated down the Monongahela 
and then down the fair Ohio, whose banks were already 
dotted by a few farms. They did not stop at night, but 
glided on through the darkness, one watching while the 
others slept. 

Forty-five miles below Pittsburg and two below the 
Pennsylvania line, they landed at the little settlement of 
Fawcettstown, now Liverpool, Columbiana County, Ohio. 
The river here, half a mile wide, at low water is almost ford- 
able, but in spring very high, full of driftwood, and dotted 
with stern-wheel steamers, pushing black coal barges before 
them. Liverpool, on the north bank, occupies a bluff which 
slopes down to the river, and looks across upon a sharp, 
wooded hill. The village is a long straggling collection of 
buildings which look as if they were on their way " down 
to the river to drink," — dingy dwellings and stores, sharp- 
roofed white cottages, shaded by ash and elm, and pottery 
factories, each a queer, circular edifice of brick, with 
huge, round chimney, looking like a bee-hive with a stove- 
pipe protruding from the top. 

Such is the Liverpool of to-day. Noah Grant found it 
composed only of half a dozen log-cabins in the deep 



32 The Grant Genealogical Kecord. [1822. 

forest. His son Jesse, then five years old, is still living 
in full health and vigor, and well remembers the voyage 
sixty-nine years after its occurrence. He is the father of 
General Grant. 

We will recapitulate the foregoing facts, and anticipate 
some yet to be related, to present in compact and complete 
form the genealogical record : 

I. Matthew Grant, born in Dorsetshire, England, 1601. Married Pris- 

cilla , in England, November 17, 1625. Arrived at Nantasket Point, 

Massachusetts, May 30, 1630, and settled in Dorchester. Removed to 
Windsor, Connecticut, September, 1635. 

II. Samuel Grant, born in Dorchester, Massachusetts, November 12, 
1631. Married Mary Porter, May 27, 1658. 

III. Samuel Grant (second), born in Windsor, Connecticut, April 20, 1659. 
Married (second wife) Grace Minor, April 11, 1688. 

IV. Noah Grant, born in Windsor, Connecticut, December 16, 1692. 
Married Martha Huntington, June 12, 1717. 

V. Noah Grant (second), born in Tolland, Connecticut, July 12, 1718. 
Married Susannah Delano, November 5, 1746. 

VI. Noah Grant (third), born in Coventry, Connecticut, June 23, 1748. 
Pvemoved to Pennsylvania, 1790. Married (second wife) Rachael Kelly, 
March 4, 1792. 

VII. Jesse Root Grant, born in Westmoreland County, Pennsylvania, 
January 23, 1794. Removed to Ohio, April, 1799. Married Hannah Simp- 
son, June 24, 1821. 

VIII. Ulysses Simpson Grant, born at Point Pleasant, Clermont County, 
Ohio, April 27, 1822. 



1^99.] End of the Last Century. 33 



CHAPTER II. 
PARENTAGE and birth. 

The pleasant spring days, when Noah Grant and his 
family glided down the Beautiful River came and went in 
the last year of the eighteenth century. 

The "Northwest Territory" held their new home. Its 
Governor Arthur St. Clair, an erect, soldierly old gentleman, 
with biue eyes, ruddy cheeks, and long, powdered hair, 
had been a brigadier-general in the Revolution, and a major- 
general in later Indian wars. Its delegate in Congress, Cap- 
tain William Henry Harrison, was a young soldier of twenty- 
six. The American Union held only five millions of people. 
It was composed of sixteen States, Mississippi Territory, — 
afterward divided into Georgia, Alabama and Mississippi — 
and the Northwest Territory, which embraced the present 
States of Ohio, Indiana, Illinois, Wisconsin and Michigan. 
Neither Louisiana nor Florida, nor a single acre west of the 
Mississippi belonged to our Government. Indeed, only 
seven years had passed since the discovery of the great 
Columbia River. 

Elders of Tory proclivities still spoke of Great Britain 
as " home," just as our Oregon and California settlers speak 
of the Eastern States. Queues, knee-breeches, silk stock- 
ings, silver shoe-buckles, and three-cornered hats, were yet 
in vogue. In the popular branch of Congress, and in State 
Legislatures, all members wore their hats, except the Speaker, 
sitting in his chair, and the orator of the moment, standing 
upon the floor. 

Bridges were scarce throughout the Union. Single 
canoes and skiffs served as ferries for foot passengers, and 
two lashed together and covered with boards, for teams. 
Carriages were rare ; and nearly all private traveling was on 



34 How the People Lived. r n "« 

foot or on horseback. A horse-block stood before every 
door ; and on Sundays, one might see many an old family 
steed jogging along toward church with one or both parents 
and one or two children all on his patient back. 

The few clocks in use were of foreign manufacture. They 
stood erect, six or eight feet high, resembling nothing so 
much as upright coffins. Watches were still more rare. 
The possession of the enormous but fashionable silver 
" bull's eye," meant either wealth or extravagance. Hour- 
glasses and sun-dials were chiefly used for marking 
time. No sanguine theorist had yet been mad enough to 
dream of a sewing-machine, but each house had its loom and 
spinning-wheel, with which the frugal matron provided 
clothing for her family. Farmers wives and daughters 
also worked much in the fields, especially in seasons of 
planting, haying, harvesting, and gathering apples. Fish 
and game formed a large part of the national diet. 

Philadelphia, the leading American city, boasted seventy 
thousand people. New York, its chief rival, had only sixty 
thousand, and they were largely from Holland. Every- 
where was the Dutch language seen upon New York signs, 
and heard along New York streets. At Astor Place, Broad- 
way ended against a farm fence. Washington Square was a 
pauper graveyard, and the corner of Chambers Street and 
Broadway a negro burial-ground. Lower Pearl Street was 
the fashionable resident quarter. Every citizen swept the 
thoroughfare in front of his house twice a week. Oil lamps 
lighted the streets, and hickory wood was the ordinary fuel. 
Milk was retailed from tin cans, suspended from neck yokes, 
borne by the milkmen themselves. Drinking water was 
sold from carts at a penny a gallon, though there stood a res- 
ervoir on Chambers Street, between Broadway and Centre, 
its water, pumped up from wells, was distributed through 
a few neighborhoods by bored logs. 

The stage journey from New York to Boston occupied a 
week, the time being diversified by prying the vehicle with 
rails out of mud-holes, in the deep woods. Nevertheless, 
stage-coaches, only lately introduced, were such an improve- 
ment on the old horseback mode, that travelers wondered at 



1799.] Boston, Albany, and St. Louis. 38 

the ease and expedition they afforded. How little like our 
day, when, as Thackeray has it, "we no longer travel, we 
only arrive" 

Boston had twenty-five thousand inhabitants. Cows ran 
loose in the streets, and were pastured on the Common, which 
was exactly what its name indicates. Foreign travelers noted, 
with the proper surprise, that New Englanders preferred 
their glutinous " Boston brown bread" of corn and rye to 
the daintiest of delicacies ; that innkeepers sat at table with 
their guests ; that stage-drivers were sometimes captains or 
colonels ; that a large proportion of the people were with- 
out butter, and many lived on bacon and salt pork ; that in 
Western Pennsylvania coal-oil often bubbled up in springs, 
making the creeks glassy; that a thousand acres of good 
land near Pittsburg was offered as a gift if one would settle 
upon it ; that ex-President George AVashington was reputed 
by his neighbors exacting and penurious, a hard master to 
his slaves, and a man without remarkable ability, though of 
clearest judgment and shining integrity ; that Vice-President 
Thomas Jefferson was equally successful as a farmer, scholar, 
philosopher, and statesman — the foremost man of all the 
New World ; that little was known of the remote Missis- 
sippi, and that little chiefly by way of New Orleans, though 
there were vague rumors that one might travel for ninety 
days along the Great River, through a fair country, all in- 
habited by Indians ; that in the Atlantic States, as now in 
Colorado, Idaho, and Utah, grasshoppers often stripped the 
meadows of every atom of green, even eating the bark from 
currant-bushes ; that stages between New York and Wash- 
ington made four to five miles an hour on good roads, but 
were often overturned by stumps of trees ; and that in 
Kentucky many log-houses were entered only from the top, 
Robinson Crusoe fashion, and the ladders drawn up at night 
as a precaution against savages. 

Albany was not only truly rural, but truly Dutch. Its 
queer houses, with gable ends to the streets, had high sharp 
roofs, little windows, and low lurches, upon which phleg- 
matic Hollanders sat smoking from morning until night. 

St. Louis was a village of nine hundred people ; and its first 



36 Fiiox Cincinnati to Pittsbukg. t^ 99 - 

brick building was not erected until fourteen years later. 
Louisiana, which embraced not only our State of that name, 
but all the vast territory between the Mississippi and the 
Pacific, belonged to France. It was a wild boundless 
region, with only seventy thousand nominally civilized 
inhabitants, of whom half were negroes, and nearly all 
spoke the French language. 

Cincinnati had four hundred inhabitants. Its houses 
were of logs or planks from immigrants' boats, standing on 
end, and sometimes covered with clapboards. Main Street 
was diversified by one large frog-pond at the intersection 
of Columbia, and another overgrown with alders on the 
corner of Fifth. On Water Street stood a whipping-post, at 
which it was the jailer's duty to castigate criminals for 
stealing. Sometimes, when on a spree, that jocular official 
amused himself by cowhiding all the prisoners, including 
those confined for debt. Fort Washington was a garrisoned 
post in the heart of the city. Near it a washer- woman occu- 
pied a hollow, standing sycamore-tree as her dwelling. It 
was large enough to afford her one good-sized room, and 
the aperture where a limb had broken off served for her 
chimney. Small change was very difficult to obtain, and 
less amounts than twelve and a half cents were given out in 
pins, needles, writing-paper, and raccoon skins. The city 
had two little newspapers, which chronicled the stealing of 
horses and killing of settlers by Indians, and copied New 
York news six weeks old, and London news four or five 
months old. 

On the first of each month a keel-boat left Pittsburg for 
Cincinnati, and another left Cincinnati for Pittsburg. In 
passing down they ran with the current ; in going up they 
were propelled by the wind when it blew, and by poles 
when it didn't. These two boats did the entire packet 
business of the "Upper Ohio. They were bullet-proof, and 
supplied with small-arms and cannon. Ordinary flat-boats, 
in going up stream, were " cordeled" — worked by the cap- 
stan, with ropes attached to trees on the bank. 

This was but sixteen years after the first daily news- 
paper appeared in America ; two years after the earliest 



1799.] A Glance at Famous Men. 37 

introduction of gas-light ; eight years before Robert Ful- 
ton launched his first steamer, though a few months after 
poor John Fitch — who constructed steamboats twelve years 
before Fulton, jet, lacking his rare business tact, failed to 
introduce them— died by his own hand, a despairing, 
broken-hearted man. It was twelve years before the first 
steamer descended the Ohio, thirty-nine before the first 
one crossed the Atlantic, and twenty-nine before the first 
steam cars ran in America — between Albany and Sche- 
nectady. 

Washington was living at Mount Yernon, threescore and 
ten, still standing six feet two, muscular and erect, with his 
blue eyes undimmed, but his brown hair silvered. During 
his second term, just ended, he had been traduced even more 
shamefully than was Abraham Lincoln in our day— charged 
with imbecility, treachery to his country, and even personal 
cowardice and dishonesty. John Adams was President of 
the United States. Alexander Hamilton, slender, graceful, 
generous, with the fair face of perpetual youth, was in the 
full splendor of his fame, practicing law in New York. 
James Madison was a member of the Yirginia Legislature ; 
Albert Gallatin, a broad-browed, splendid-looking Repre- 
sentative from Western Pennsylvania, making powerful 
speeches in Congress with a strong foreign accent ; An- 
drew Jackson, a Judge of the Supreme Court of Tennessee ; 
Matthew Lyon, a rattle-brained Irish-born Representative 
from Yermont, where he published a newspaper for which 
he had cut the types with his own hand, and made the paper 
of bass-wood. He it was who, spitting in the face of a 
Connecticut Representative, and getting caned in return in 
presence of the whole House, began the scenes of violence 
and words of Billingsgate, which, at intervals ever since, 
and never so much as of late, have made the country blush 
for the boorishness and indecency of its Congress. 

Henry Clay was a tall, ungraceful youth of twenty- 
two, beginning to practice law in Lexington, Kentucky ; 
John Quincy Adams, at the same age, American Minis- 
ter to Berlin. John Randolph, with great lustrous eyes, 
and long hair parting in the middle, was an awkward 



38 And those to Become Famous. t 1799 - 

3 7 oung man of twenty- six, who had read every thing, and 
was now running for Congress. George Stephenson was 
eighteen, and did not know a letter of the alphabet, but he 
had learned to take his engine apart and repair it, and was 
making shoes and cutting out clothing for the miners, to earn 
his passage to America. Walter Scott was a deputy sheriff, 
who had published a few ballads, but did not write his first 
novel until fifteen years afterward. John C. Calhoun was 
preparing for college ; Martin Van Buren studying law ; 
Daniel Webster, a sophomore at Dartmouth College, and 
Lewis Cass journeying on foot across the Alleghanies to 
find a home in the great West. 

Eli Whitney, disgusted with the bad faith that had made 
his cotton-gin a pecuniary failure, was manufacturing mus- 
kets at New Haven. Eobert Fulton, with the most pleasing 
manners, handsome features, and sparkling black eyes, was 
studying the sciences and constructing steamboat models in 
Paris. Fisher Ames, the ablest orator and writer of his day, 
had retired from public life, and was philosophizing among 
his Massachusetts gardens and orchards. Noah Webster at 
forty- one was publishing a treatise on pestilential diseases. 
He had already been soldier, lecturer, school-teacher, poli- 
tician, and editor, and did not begin his great dictionary 
until eight years later. Lindley Murray was a retired 
lawyer and merchant of fifty-four, who had but recently 
issued his English Grammar. It is noteworthy that the 
great grammarian and the great lexicographer of our language 
— those upon whose works all later works are based — did not 
devote themselves to their special studies until after reaching 
middle life — only found their places in the great working 
world after playing Jack-at-all-trades through their best 
working years. 

I should crave pardon for this long digression, did I not 
contemplate many more which would better be condoned 
all "in the lump." Beside, the reader may think that the 
main journey should be omitted, rather than these wander- 
ings in by-paths. For are we not all born gossips % and 
what are these but the gossip of literature? We have 
not taken passage on a modern express train, which will 



ww.] Maky Digressions Intended. 39 

take us straight through to Finis Station at thirty miles an 
hour, with no extra charge for the chances of being pitched 
over a precipice, and then broiled in a burning carriage. 
Not at all. Our way is among the fathers, jogging on horse- 
back or trudging afoot, over stumpy roads, through great 
forests, and along a few cleared fields inclosed by brush 
fences. Ample leisure have we to be sociable. After 
dinner, on the porch of the log inn will we smoke our pipe, 
and chat as long as we like with the good-humored land- 
lord. Along the road will we laugh leisurely at the 
droll stories and merry songs of our jolly fellow-traveler, 
or shake our heads with the solemn one, who is sure that 
the young country is already going to the dogs — and be- 
times help pry the coach-wheels with a rail out of the mud- 
hole, while one hospitable passenger offers us a drink of 
ram from his black bottle — in which a bit of corn-cob, 
wrapped with a rag, serves for stopper — while the rest tell 
us the latest news about the prospect of war with Fiance, 
or the health of General Washington, or the progress of that 
rough, dreary, wilderness town on the Potomac to which the 
Federal Capital is about to be removed from Philadelphia. 
We will chat with the farmer by the roadside, who is 
t irning up the black soil with wooden plow, or stirring it 
around the tender corn with clumsy iron hoe ; — with the 
kindly matron, who stops the loom's swift shuttle on her 
porch, to draw up the huge sweep and give us a gourd of 
ccol water from her old oaken bucket ; — with the shy maiden 
in white sun-bonnet, who walks beside us toward the cross- 
roads where stands the log school-house, in which she 
reigns supreme over her boisterous, but loyal and tender- 
hearted little subjects. Nay, when the mood is on us, we 
will wander off the road altogether, to pluck luscious straw- 
berries on sunny slopes, or gather wild honeysuckles in 
grassy dells, or wade for waxen water-lilies, that sleep 
white and calm as ivory on their glassy beds, where 

" The river glideth at his own sweet will.'' 

Suppose we are a little longer upon the journey, do we 
travel on business, or for pleasure ? And shall we imitate 



40 Ingenuity of Young Jesse. [ 18 °o- 

those dreadful American tourists who do all Europe in 
thirty days, and come back to tell us — not what they have 
seen to enlarge their culture and warm their hearts, and 
make their lives more fair and fruitful — but only how many 
miles they have traveled and how many dollars it has cost ? 
Not we, indeed. 

Noah Grant raised his cabin on the bank of the Ohio. 
Just after his arrival, an Indian called White Eyes was shot 
by a settler' s son, in a personal altercation. This caused a 
few skirmishes, until the citizens united and cleared the 
entire region of red men. 

In December of that year Washington died. One day 
Jesse, five years old, observed his mother weeping, and 
asked : — 

u What is the matter?" 

"General Washington is dead," she replied, through 
her sobs. 

The lad, upon whom a knowledge of the father of his 
country had never yet dawned, promptly inquired : — 

" Was he any relation of yours V 

Jesse was a born Yankee, and ingenuity is justified of 
her children. At six years he rode an old family horse to 
mill, to bring back a bag of meal, which he used as a saddle. 
On the way home he fell asleep, and the bag slipped off, 
carrying boy and all. Jesse awoke, rubbed his eyes and 
pondered. The horse towered above him like a mountain. 
He could not mount alone, much less lift on the meal. It 
was three-quarters of a mile back to the mill, and half a 
mile forward home. He might leave the bag in the road, 
but meal was precious, hogs abounded, and hogs which 
sustain a precarious existence on acorns and wild roots, 
have a special " affinity" for corn in any form except the 
liquid one of whisky. The lad cogitated until — Eureka ! — 
hard by was a half-fallen tree, whose stem formed an 
inclined plane ! To the foot of this the little fellow rolled 
his bag ; then worked it laboriously up the trunk. When 
it was high enough he led the old horse under, pushed the 
bag down on the steed's back, dropped upon it himself, and 
jogged home in triumph. In which fertility of resource 



1805.] The Boy's Mother Dies. 41 

not only was the boy father to the man. Ibut father likewise 
to his future son. 

Noah Grant had only established himself temporarily. 
The Western Reserve was not yet surveyed or open to settle- 
ment ; but he looked upon it with longing eyes, for it was an 
admirable body of land. Its three millions of acres embraced 
the present site of Cleveland, and the eight northeastern 
counties of Ohio. It was known as New Connecticut, for it 
belonged to the Nutmeg State. In 1800, however, she sold 
it to the General Government, and from the proceeds ob- 
tained her magnificent school fund. But she retained one 
county for the benefit of her own citizens, who had suffered 
from the burning of buildings by the British during the 
Revolution, and these tracts were long known as the " Con- 
necticut Fire Lands." 

The whole region was settled chiefly from New Eng- 
land, and to this day, in pronunciations, in idioms, in social 
habits, and in political faith, it is like a portion of Massa- 
chusetts transplanted bodily to the West. 

When Jesse was ten years old the Reserve was thrown 
open, and his father established his new home upon it, in 
Portage County, forty miles from the old home, and near the 
present town of Deerfield. 

The next year Noah' s wife died. It was a sore loss, for 
she was the chief dependence of the family. Noah Grant — 
dark haired, but in form and size like the General— was well 
educated, clear-headed, a brilliant talker, and a vivid de- 
scriber of battles. But he was never a provident man. On 
coming to his majority he inherited a life interest in the Coven- 
try property left by his uncle Solomon. But, little by little, 
he parted with it all before he was thirty years old.* And 
in seven years of military life, a common misfortune befel 

* After the Revolution, entail was abolished, so upon Noah's death this property 
fell in fee-simple to his eldest son Peter. Before Peter could take possession he 
died, and his children inherited it. In 1833, their uncle — the General's father — 
visited Connecticut to look after it. It consisted of two hundred acres in Coventry. 
The tenants, who had purchased the life-interest of Noah, were mostly poor, and 
held farms of five, ten, and twenty-five acres. The property was worth ten thou- 
sand dollars ; but the heirs, who were all in comfortable circumstances, finally quit- 
claimed to the occupants on receiving three thousand dollars. 



42 How the Ohio Settleiis Lived. [i 808 - 

him — lie lost something of his self-control, and acquired the 
fondness for stimulants often born of army excitements. 
So, since the close of the war, his family had been poor, and 
now, the death of his wife broke it up. The younger 
children were adopted by neighbors, and Susan and Jesse, 
the two eldest, had to face life and provide for themselves. 

After Jesse's mother died, he found this rather a hard 
world. He worked at several places, earning plain food and 
scanty clothing ; but in November, 1808, the lad, now four- 
teen years old, went twenty-five miles from Deerfield. to 
Youngstown, Trumbull County, to live with Judge George 
Tod of the State Supreme Court. Here Jesse found a home. 
He was sent to school three months of the first, and three 
months of the second year, but that was the whole of his 
school education. In arithmetic he arrived at a dim per- 
ception of the single rule of three. Later in life he de- 
voted himself to text books, until sufficiently accomplished 
for the transaction of ordinary business, and even studied 
grammar after he was a married man. 

In summer, at Judge Tod' s, Jesse worked on the farm, 
clearing land, and planting corn. The first winter he wore 
the Judge' s cast-off garments made over ; but the second 
autumn saw him decked in a full suit of " store clothing," 
to the delight of his boyish heart. 

There were no carriages in that region for many years 
later. Young settlers from the East, outvying the tame 
romance of Hero and Leander, used to walk back to Con- 
necticut, six hundred miles, to be married. Then they 
would start in a light wagon, with cooking utensils, and 
blankets for camping, to begin their new home with the 
slender materials, which usually bring the most substantial 
stock of happiness. 

There was little money in Ohio, and the settlers were 
extremely poor. Even candles were an unusual luxury, and 
most houses were lighted by a burning rag, which floated 
upon a dish of oil. The people lived in log-cabins, with roofs 
of split clapboards, upon which poles were laid to keep them 
in place. After a few years they covered their roofs with 
split shingles. At first they built the brush fence, but in 



lsos.] Jesse on Spoons and Bowls. 43 

two or three years erected the high worm fence of rails, and 
set fire to the old brush, which Mazed like tinder. Game, 
including bears and wolves, was abundant. So were 
Indians, chiefly Ottawas and Muncies, but in general they 
were very friendly. 

The pioneers, who raised nearly every thing they ate, at 
first bought their few groceries at Pittsburg, but soon made 
Cleveland their trading point. At the outset, in winter they 
fed their swine on potatoes and peas, fancying the soil 
too cold for Indian corn, but in time they learned that 
it was admirably adapted to that grain. Still the nights 
were extremely cool, even in summer. The country was 
heavily timbered, and the deep forest shade kept the earth 
from receiving the sun's heat, so settlers built dwellings 
on the warm open banks beside the streams. 

The orphan lad was happy at his new home. Among 
his playmates was David Tod, who lived to be Governor 
of Ohio, while Jesse's son was leading great armies to 
victory. 

Mush and milk was the boys' luxury. Every night 
they were sent to eat it for supper before the roaring log- fire 
of the great kitchen. On the first evening the spoons and 
bowls excited Jesse's wonder. He thought them a miracle 
of elegance. When he became so familiar that he dared to 
ask the question, he queried of one of the boys : — 

"What are these spoons made of?" 

"Silver." 

" What are the bowls made of?" 

"China?" 

Jesse, who thought with Squeers, "Here's richness," 
continued earnestly : — 

"When I am a man, and have children, I am going to 
buy just such spoons and bowls as these. What did they 
cost?" 

" I don't know. I'll go and ask mother." 

So the future Governor toddled off to the elders, in the 
sitting-room, and soon came back with the message : — 

"She says you'll have to be very rich before you can 
own them, for the set cost eighteen dollars." 



44 The Last War with England. t 1812 - 

Eighteen dollars was an enormous sum ; but the ambi- 
tious boy still insisted that he would live to own such 
spoons and bowls. He further determined that he would 
marry at twenty-five, if able to support a wife, and retire 
from business at sixty, if he reached that age ; for, stung 
by the inconvenience and bitterness of want, he had firmly 
resolved that, while his father, born rich had died poor, he, 
born poor, would die rich. Unlike most of us who never 
fulfill the rosy expectations of youth, Jesse lived to real- 
ize his ; but then his were practical, and quite below the 
region of romance. His brothers, too, seem to have been 
moved by the same impulse, for all lived to accumulate 
wealth. 

At sixteen, Jesse left Judge Tod's, and returned to 
Deerfield, where he spent two years in learning the tanning 
business. But the yard was only large enough to employ 
one man ; so, at eighteen, he was apprenticed to his half- 
brother in Maysville, Kentucky. There he remained till 
he had become a first-class tanner. This was during the war 
of 1812. As British emissaries had excited Indians to cruel 
hostilities in the West, that section was zealous in favor 
of the war, while New England, whose shipping interest 
the war utterly ruined, was equally zealous against it. 

At the outset, our fathers looked upon this straggle as 
more formidable than, in the spring of 1861, we deemed the 
Great Rebellion. Congress authorized the President to call 
out one hundred and seventy-five thousand volunteers and 
militia. Stirring scenes followed, of which we hardly 
remember the outline — western settlers massacred by In- 
dians ; Harrison' s brilliant fight at Tippecanoe, the most des- 
perate Indian battle of history; Perry's magnificent naval 
victory on Lake Erie, upon which he based his famous dis- 
patch, "We have met the enemy, and they are ours ;" the 
night of President Madison and his cabinet from Washington, 
and the capture of that city, a disaster causing more excite- 
ment and humiliation than the Bull Run defeat of our own 
day ; and finally, Jackson' s wonderful victory at New 
Orleans, fifteen days after the signing of a treaty of 
peace at Ghent between commissioners of Great Britain 



1819.] Jesse Looks fok a Wife. 45 

aild the United States, but before news of it had reached 
America. 

Ohio and Kentucky were helped rather than injured by 
the war, as it furnished a market on the northern border 
for their surplus wheat, butter, cheese, and beef. Their 
leading citizens were in the army, including Jesse's friend, 
Judge Tod, who served as colonel. 

In 1815, peace being declared, Jesse, now twenty-one, 
returned to Deerfield, took the little tan-yard and went into 
business for himself. He began without capital, but being 
industrious and frugal, steadily accumulated property. This 
year, he made his first trip to Cincinnati, an ambitious set- 
tlement of six thousand people, who were beginning to fill 
up their frog-ponds and to cut streets, which ran like shelves 
along the sides of their tall bluffs. From Sixth Street 
up to Twelfth, Jesse saw a great corn-field with the grain 
in full leaf. 

At the end of two years, the young tanner removed fif- 
teen miles to Ravenna. In two years more, he was the 
owner of fifteen hundred dollars, chiefly invested in his tan- 
yard and leather, which made him the richest citizen of the 
little town. 

On the morning of his twenty-fifth birthday, Jesse 
awoke and said to a fellow-workman who slept with him : — 
"I always promised myself a wife at twenty-five, if 
I should have the means to support her. Now I have the 
property, but I don't know where to look. However, 
before going to bed I will make a start in some direction 
toward getting married." 

So the tall young man donned his Sunday suit, put 
things to rights in the tan-yard, and then walked thought- 
fully about the little tavern where he boarded. Tanning 
and Sunday clothing do not assimilate ; and the landlady' s 
curiosity was excited by his unusual garb and mien. She 
asked :- 

"What are you thinking about so seriously 3" 

" About looking for a wife." 

"Where are you going to look?" 

' ' Well, I don' t know— some where, where there are girls. ' ' 



46 And Meets with Ill-Fortune. [ 182( >- 

Jesse remembered one Clara Hall, whom he had never 
seen but once, and that fifteen months before. After din- 
ner, he went to call on her. She received him cordially, 
and trne to her sex proved an enthusiastic match-maker. 
He had given her no hint of his purpose, but the feminine 
instinct was strong within her. When he asked who lived 
in a neighboring house, she replied : — 

" My uncle Timothy, and he has a daughter who will 
make you a capital wife. Now I am going to send for her 
to come over to tea, and you must go home with her." 

This was a diversion. Clara, not her cousin, had been in 
Jesse's mind. But the cousin, Prudence by name, came 
duly, and he not only took her home, as he was bid, but 
on the way agreed upon a correspondence with her. After 
keeping this up for a few months, the young couple resolv- 
ed to face the perils of matrimony, and agreed that the 
knot should be tied immediately "after court." The Su- 
preme Court sat in Deerfield every October, and the session 
brought much business to the town. After this active 
period, there was leisure for weddings and other amuse- 
ments. 

But the course of this true love did not run smooth. In 
August Jesse was attacked by the fever and ague. His 
journeyman also took the disease, and much of his stock 
was ruined for want of attention. His sickness lasted dur- 
ing the rest of the year. Creditors were pressing, debtors 
were neglected, and before the young man' s health returned 
his little fortune had faded away, and he was not worth 
a hundred and fifty dollars. 

In January, 1820, so far recovered that he could travel 
eight or ten miles a day, he spent a few weeks with relatives 
in Maysville. There his father had died a few months be- 
fore. After losing his wife, Noah resided near his old 
Ohio home until 1811, supporting himself and aiding his 
younger children by shoemaking. Then he removed to 
Maysville, and spent the rest of his life with his youngest 
son, who was a prominent and successful business man. 

Jesse's sickness lasted over a year. When he had so 
far recovered as to go to work again, he settled in Clermont 



1821.] But Finally Marries Wisely. 47 

County, on the north bank of the Ohio River, twenty-five 
miles above Cincinnati. The little village, of fifteen or twen- 
ty families, was then, as now, called Point Pleasant. A 
citizen had offered to furnish the money for setting up the 
tanning business, if Jesse would teach its art and mystery 
to his son. Like Micawber, Genius Jesse might have, Cap- 
ital he had not ; so he accepted the offer and tarried to accu- 
mulate capital for a fresh start in life. 

In Point Pleasant he married — but the bride was not 
Prudence Hall. The affection of that young lady had so 
much of the Platonic, and so little of the "Where-thou- 
goest, -I- will-go," that the engagement was given up, and she 
is now the wife of a well-to-do Ohio farmer and the mother 
of his two children. 

But as soon as Jesse was off with the old love, he was on 
with the new. Ten miles from Point Pleasant lived another 
maiden, Hannah Simpson, sole daughter of the house and 
heart of a thrifty farmer who had moved to the West two 
years before. She was born and reared in Pennsylvania, 
twenty miles from Philadelphia. For several generations 
her ancestors had been American, though a family tradition 
alleged that originally they were Irish. Jesse describes 
her at this time as "an unpretending country girl, hand- 
some but not vain." She was thoroughly accomplished in 
all the duties of housewifery, and to great womanly sweet- 
ness added prudence, clear judgment, piety, and a gravity 
and thoughtfulness beyond her years. 

Never was Jesse Grant's good fortune greater than 
when, on the twenty-fourth of June, 1821, he married Han- 
nah Simpson. The following paragraphs, possibly familiar 
to some of my readers, give a singularly faithful description 
of her : — 

" Her price is far above rubies. 

The heart of her husband doth safely trust in her. 

She will do him good and not evil all the days of her life. 

She seeketh wool, and flax, and worketh willingly with her hands. 

She openeth her mouth with wisdom; and in her tongue is the law of 
kindness. 

She looketh well to the ways of her household, and eateth not the bread 
of idleness. 



48 And Ulysse9 is Bokn. [1821. 

Her children arise up, and call her blessed ; her husband also, and he 
praiseth her." 

The young couple began housekeeping in a little frame 
dwelling, a hundred yards from the Ohio River. Behind 
the house and the hamlet rose a bold hill. In front ran 
a little creek. Here, on the twenty- seventh day of April, 
1822, the future General was born. Our title-page repro- 
duces faithfully a capital photograph of the home in which 
he first saw the light, with the physician, who introduced 
him into this breathing world, standing in the gateway. The 
dwelling, still substantially unchanged, is now visited by 
many curious and patriotic pilgrims. The two trees yet 
standing in front were planted by the hand of Jesse Grant. 

If leading ancestral qualities are inherited, the infant son 
of these young parents had fallen heir to inflexible Puritan 
integrity, aptitude for public business, industry, enterprise 
and thrift, strong military tastes, and that devoted patri- 
otism which holds it sweet and beautiful to die for one's 
country. 

\ 



1822.] The Baby Named by Ballot. 49 



CHAPTER III. 



BOYHOOD. 



The Tbaby weighed ten and three-fourth pounds, and 
caused the usual excitement attendant upon the advent of a 
first child. The name was held a question of gravity, only 
to be decided by a family council. So when the little 
stranger was six weeks old his mother made a visit to her 
father's, ten miles away, where a congress of parents, 
grand-parents, and two maternal aunts, was called to legis- 
late on the all-important question. 

Party feeling ran so high that a ballot was determined 
upon. On a slip of paper each wrote the name which he or 
she preferred, and deposited it in a hat. The hat was 
shaken, and then an aunt, with head turned aside, drew 
forth a slip. It bore the name " Ulysses." Further 
examination of the ballot-box showed that the vote stood 
thus : — 

Hiram 1 

Albert 2 

Theodore 1 

Ulysses 2 

6 

Hiram was voted by John Simpson, the maternal grand- 
father, with whom it was a special favorite. The Alberts 
were for Albert Gallatin, well known, particularly in the 
West, as one of the most brilliant, versatile, and able public 
men of the United States, and just then resident minister 
of our Government at Paris. He was alike successful as 
legislator, diplomat, author, financier, and man of business. 
After spending fifty years in honorable public service, and 
declining seats in two Cabinets, and the Vice-Presidency 



50 Jesse Moves to Georgetown. L 182 ^. 

of the United States, lie voluntarily retired to spend a calm, 
wise old age in the pleasant paths of literature. 

These were matter-of-fact names. Theodore, more fan- 
ciful, had pleased the fancy of one of the maiden aunts. 
Ulysses, both romantic and classic, originated thus : Shortly 
after marriage, Jesse read Fenelon' s Telemachus, of which 
a copy had strayed into the settlement. Afterward the 
"book fell into the hands of old Mrs. Simpson. Both were 
deeply inqDressed with the character of the hero's father, 
"the wise Ulysses," whom Fenelon depicts from classic 
song and story, and of whom, "by the grace of Alexander 
Pope, Homer sings : — 

a To tread the walks of death he stood prepared, 
And what he greatly thought he nobly dared." 

Throughout the book he is invariably spoken of as 
" gentle of speech, beneficent of mind," "the most j3atient 
of men," "equally unmoved against danger and reproach." 
Telemachus is apostrophized : — 

"Your father Ulysses is the wisest of mankind; his heart is an un- 
fathomable depth ; his secret lies beyond the line of subtlety and fraud ; he 
is the friend of truth ; he says nothing that is false, but when it is necessary 
he conceals what is true ; Ms wisdom is, as it were, a seal upon Ms lips, which 
is never orohen out for an important purposed 

So, ' ' whether by chance or by design of the immortal 
gods," the tanner's son, born in a frontier cabin, was named 
for the antique character whose traits his own were to resem- 
ble so strikingly — the Grecian warrior and counselor, noted 
for intrepidity, reticence, and wisdom, no less than for pass- 
ing unscathed through every danger. Afterward, in defer- 
ence to the grandfather' s wish, another name was prefixed, 
and the lad was baptized Hiram Ulysses Grant. 

Ten months after the birth of Ulysses, Jesse moved to 
Georgetown, in Brown County. The tanner was thrifty. 
In twenty-two months he had accumulated eleven hun- 
dred dollars, which he took with him, one thousand 
of it in silver, then commanding a premium of thirty 
per cent. That year Jesse built him a small brick house, 



1823.] A Great Place for Drinking. 51 

and supported his family from the profits of his new tan- 
yard, without drawing upon his accumulated capital. 

Georgetown is ten miles back from the Ohio. Ripley, 
the river point for the debarkation of passengers and freight, 
is fifty-nine miles above Cincinnati, and the most important 
town between that city and Maysville. Both Ripley and 
Georgetown are thirty miles from the nearest railway — per- 
haps the only localities in Ohio so completely "off the 
road." The counties, Brown and Clermont, happen to be 
in a bend of the Ohio River, and not on the route to any- 
where. 

Landing from a steamer at the old brick town of Ripley, 
a sort of urban Rip Van Winkle, with a "general flavor 
of mild decay," we climb the sharp bluff which rises two 
or three hundred feet. Upon it, and along the creeks 
cutting through it to the river, are great vineyards, their 
stakes covered with clinging vines, and in autumn rich with 
purple grapes. Brown is the first wine county of Ohio, 
except Hamilton. Back from the river, on the road to 
Georgetown, we find the country rough and heavily tim- 
bered. Log-houses are abundant, and many of the people 
still travel on horseback. 

Ever since there was a Democratic party the county has 
been strongly Democratic, and some of its denizens are said 
to be still voting for Jackson. It used to be famous for 
Clay suppers, Jackson suppers, and Adams suppers, con- 
vivial "feeds" at the Georgetown hotel. Probably more 
liquor has been consumed in the vicinity than in any other 
of our northern communities. To be temperate in Brown 
means to be intoxicated only two or three times a year. In 
old times, a man who did not get drunk at least on the 
eighth of January, the twenty- second of February, and the 
fourth of July, could hardly maintain his standing in the 
community, or in the local churches. 

When Jesse settled in Georgetown, its inhabitants, all 
told, were only a dozen families. It is now the county- seat, 
a pleasant village of twelve hundred people, built around 
a hollow square, with an ample brick court-house in the 
center, after the old Southern and Western fashion. 



52 "I Can't Take Powdee." [wm. 

Here Ulysses passed his boyhood. It furnished little 
material for a wonder-book, as he was in nowise a remark- 
able child. Still some leading qualities of his character 
were displayed very early. While he was less than two 
years old, and lying in his father's arms, a young neighbor 
wanted to try the effect of a pistol report upon him. So his 
little hand was pressed against the trigger until the charge 
exploded with a stunning report. The father relates that 
the imperturbable baby never winked nor dodged, but sim- 
ply reached out for the pistol, crying : — 

" Fick it again ! Fick it again !" 

Still he seems to have had no special longing for the 
villainous saltpeter. Once, when he fell sick, before he 
was three years old, the family physician pronounced him 
feverish, and said he would leave powders for him to take. 
The little fellow burst out sobbing : — 

"No, no, no ! I can't take powder ; it will blow me up." 

The phrase was a by- word in the family afterward, when- 
ever powders were prescribed. 

His fondness for horses developed even earlier. When 
he was twenty months old, a little menagerie and circus 
which visited the town had, among other attractions, a 
trained pony. In the midst of the performance the ring- 
master asked : — 

" Who will ride the pony ?" 

Ulysses, still in petticoats, begged that he might be al- 
lowed to do so. So he was held on the steed's back, and 
rode two or three times around the ring, manifesting more 
glee than he had ever shown before. 

Jesse Grant, sturdy and clear-headed, never swerved 
from his determination to acquire a competence. He worked 
hard and lived frugally. To make sure of hides, he added 
butchering to tanning. He also did hauling, erected build- 
ings, and, indeed, turned his hand to any thing which would 
pay. He was a decided character, fond of talking at public 
meetings, and of writing ingenious rhymes, which often 
found their way into print. The county paper, published in 
Georgetown, was called TJie Castigator. A few miles away 
lived "Backwoodsman," seventy-five years old, and of 



1827.] A Correspondence in Rhyme. 53 

considerable local reputation as a poet. When Ulysses was 
live, this frontier Homer wanted a pair of shoes. He was 
without purse or scrip, but could pay in hides or grain. 
He wrote a letter in verse, setting forth his condition and 
need. It was addressed to the tanner, but instead of being 
sent to him directly, was published, as the fashion is with 
modern politicians who wish to be " understood. ' ' It began 
thus : — 

"Jesse R. Grant, my loving friend, 
I can not go, and therefore send 
This little letter, and less news, 
To let you know I'm out of shoes. 
My shoes are tops and bottoms worn, 
My feet upon the briers are torn, 
I've tried the cobblers far and near, 
To get my shoes put in repair ; 
They throw them down, and curse and swear 
They'd rather make me two new pair." 

" Backwoodsman " went on in his rheumatic numbers, to 
complain that he could not go out to hear the news ; that 
he would pay in hides or grain ; that he wanted coarse, 
strong shoes, with broad bottoms, and not such as dandies 
wear. 

Jesse Grant was neither the man to hear unmoved an 
appeal to his sympathy, nor one at whom anybody could 
fling rhymes with impunity. He fabricated not only the 
shoes, but also this reply made through The Castigator : — 

" Backwoodsman, sir, my aged friend, 
These lines in answer back I send, 
To thank you for your rhyming letter, 
Published in The Castigator. 
The story of your worn-out shoes, 
Is, to a tanner, no strange news ; 
We often hear that story told, 
By those whose feet are pinched with cold, 
When they apply to get some leather, 
To guard against the frosty weather. 
That cash is scarce, they oft complain, 
And wish to pay their bills in grain. 
Others who wish to be supplied, 
Will promise soon to bring a hide. 



54 Ulysses the Favorite Child. t 182 ?- 

Such pay by us is greatly prized, 

But is not always realized. 

Now, one thing here I must relate, 

As written in the Book of Fate, 

As you've grown old, you have grown poor, 

As poets oft have done before. 

And yet, no one of common sense, 

Will charge that fault to your expense ; 

Or, otherwise, disprove the weight, 

Than charge it to a poet's fate. 

Dame Fate with me, though, need not flirt, 

For I'm not poet enough to hurt ! 

The world, 'tis said, owes all a living, 

"What can't be bought, then, must be given ; 

And though I have not much to spare, 

I can, at least, supply a pair — 

Or leather for a pair — of shoes, 

That you may sally forth for news. 

And when another pair you want, 

Just drop a note to 

J. R. Geant." 

It was an uneventful life in the little Ohio village. 
When Ulysses was three years old a second son was born 
to his parents, and named Simpson. The two grew np 
together. Their school comrades often nsed, after the fash- 
ion of those days, to go home with the Grant boys in 
winter, and spend the evening before the great, log fire, 
which blazed on the kitchen hearth, playing ''fox and 
geese," "morris," and "checkers," eating apples, cracking 
hickory-nnts, telling stories, propounding riddles, and end- 
ing the fun by sleeping together. 

Two brothers, who were their closest intimates, are still 
living in Georgetown. Both went through the Mexican 
War ; one has been a Democratic Representative in Con- 
gress, and the other, as a Brigadier- General of Volunteers, 
did gallant service during our great war. 

Ulysses was a very quiet, but by no means a diffident 
boy. His father, who was fond and vain of his children, 
was given to putting them forward ; and Ulysses was the 
favorite, because he would do, or at least attempt, whatever 
he was told. Both father and mother were members of 



1831.] Eaely Exploits with Horses. 55 

tlie Methodist church, and there was a little meeting-house 
across the street. Methodist ministers frequently spent the 
night at the house. A visitor remembers one evening 
when Ulysses, then only seven or eight years old, at the 
call of his father, stepped out "briskly, stood up in a corner, 
and recited : — 

" You'd scarce expect one of my age, 
To speak in public on the stage.' 1 

He rattled it off hurriedly and mechanically, "but still 
with great readiness. Daniel Webster, in boyhood, could 
not summon composure enough to "speak his piece," but 
Ulysses Grant could without the least diffidence. If any 
wiseacre had had opportunity to compare the two, his pro- 
phetic soul would undoubtedly have seen in the farmer' s 
son a great orator in embryo, and, perchance, in the shy 
New Hampshire boy, the promise of a successful general. 

The most noticeable thing in the boyhood of Ulysses, 
love of horses, continued. Once, at seven and a half 
years old, when his father was gone to Ripley, the child 
succeeded in hitching a young colt to a sled, drove to the 
woods, loaded brush, and hauled it to the door all day. 
When the father came home at night, he found a pile of 
brush as high as a haystack. 

At eight, the boy hauled wood daily, taking care of a 
span of horses himself, though he was not tall enough to 
put on their collars and bridles without standing upon an 
inverted half-bushel measure. 

He accumulated a little money by carting wood and by 
driving passengers, who arrived in Georgetown by stage, to 
their homes in the adjacent country. So at nine, he bought 
a colt for seventeen dollars, and from that time was never 
without a horse of his own. He frequently traded, always 
had a little fund of money of his own, and was thought to 
give indications of unusual business capacity, though he 
never manifested it in his personal affairs in after life. 

He was known far and near as the best horseman "in 
all the country round." When nine or ten years old, he 
had acquired such repute for fast riding, that horse-jockeys 



56 Boyish Feats of Horsemanship. [1833. 

who had steeds suffering from a distemper, which was re- 
lieved by riding them so fast as to heat them, used to bring 
the animals to Georgetown, for the tanner's son to try 
them for a few miles at the break-neck gallop, in which his 
heart delighted. Neighboring farmers also brought refrac- 
tory horses for him to train and subdue. More than 
once the little fellow was seen racing around the public 
square upon a kicking, rearing, pitching beast, to which, 
with arms clasped about its neck, and fat bare feet 
pressed against its flanks, the lad was clinging with the same 
tenacity which he manifested later in life. 

Of course he was in demand at the traveling shows. 
Georgetown people relate, that at one, when he was 
only eleven, he not only rode a trained pony at full run 
around the narrow ring, but while at that flying speed, was 
not in the least disconcerted by a mischievous monkey, 
which, being turned loose, jumped upon the top of his 
head, and, clinging to his hair, looked down into his face. 

A favorite amusement was to stand barefoot upon a 
sheepskin strapped on his horse's back to keep the rider's 
feet from slipping, and then put the animal on a fast gallop 
down to the brook or up the main street. Before he was 
twelve he learned to ride thus, standing only upon one foot, 
and holding by the bridle rein. The widow of Dr. Bailey, 
nearest neighbor to the Grants, says : — 

"In general, Ulysses was exceedingly kind and amiable. 
Our boys never had the least dispute with him about any 
thing except horses ; but sometimes, when they galloped to- 
gether down to the 'run' to water, Ulysses would laugh 
at our boys, and tell them our horses were getting poor. 
This used to trouble them, and they would ask me, with 
great anxiety, if ours really were thin and slow." 

One of the sons of this lady met his death through his 
fondness for horses. He was riding a refractory one which 
became frightened, reared, rolled over, and killed the rider. 

With all his equestrian skill, Ulysses was extremely 
averse to being thought a jockey, and reluctant to train 
horses. Once, a neighbor, desirous of having a colt disci- 
plined, put the lad on the animal, and gave him two dol- 



1833]. A Curious Juvenile Bargain. 57 

lars to carry a letter thirteen miles to Decatur. While he 
was starting, the neighbor said, as if the thought had just 
occurred to him : — 

" Oh ! I wish you would teach that pony to pace." 

When the lad returned at night, the animal was a good 
pacer. But after Ulysses discovered that the letter was 
only a pretext, he could never again Ibe induced to train a 
neighbor's horse. 

He was singularly ingenuous. Before he was twelve, 
his father sent him to buy a mare, of the Printer stock, 
from a farmer named Robert Ralston, who lived a mile 
west of Georgetown. Jesse, sharp at a bargain, instructed 
Ulysses : — 

"Offer him forty dollars; if he won't take that, give 
forty-five ; and rather than come away without her, pay 
him fifty." 

The boy started for the Ralston farm-house, intending to 
carry out his orders. But farmer Ralston plumply asked 
him : — 

" How much did your father tell you to pay ?" 

Disconcerted by the abrupt question, Ulysses replied : — 

' ' He told me to offer you forty dollars, and if you would 
not take that, to offer forty -five; and rather than return 
without her, to give fifty." 

The farmer laughed, but, with an eye to business, in- 
sisted that he could not sell the mare for less than fifty dol- 
lars. So Ulysses took her home, and his father paid the 
money. 

The chubby baby grew up a chubby boy, — short, fat, 
and ruddy. He had a very keen sense of justice. One day, 
playing with the Bailey boys, he knocked the ball through 
a window of their house. Rushing in, with his round 
face Wushing scarlet, he said earnestly to their mother : — 

" Mrs. Bailey, I have broken your window, but I am 
going right up town to get another pane of glass for you, 
and have it put in at once." 

But he was too great a favorite with the lady, and, indeed, 
with all her family, for them to exact such a measure of jus- 
tice from him. 



58 Skating, Fishing, and Swimming. L 1833 - 

A little brook ran "beside the tan-yard. During a June 
freshet, when the lad was ten years old, it overflowed all 
the vats, and sent the leather and bark floating away. 
But the leather caught in thick willows, and the stream 
was soon full of men and delighted boys swimming in to 
bring it back. All was reclaimed, without serious injury, 
and Jesse's only loss was the valuable bark— that which 
was dry and unused floating off, but the old and water- 
soaked remaining. 

He was extremely fond of skating, and learned it while 
very young. When nine or ten years old, he froze his 
feet from tight straps. Mrs. Grant, a physician on instinct, 
was on terms of intimacy with every conceivable malady 
that juvenile flesh is heir to, and had a remedy for it duly 
put away and labeled in some corner of her memory. Of 
course, such a mother is worth all the physicians in the 
world for little invalids, despite her harmless idiosyncrasies, 
one of which in her case found vent in administering salts 
to the children regularly, sick or well, at certain seasons 
of the year. This time she smoked the frozen feet of the 
young sufferer with hay, and then bound on slices of bacon 
to take out the frost. 

Ulysses and his comrades, when very young, used to sit 
barefooted on the bank of the little brook beside the tan- 
yard, fishing for "chubs" and " shiners," with hooks of bent 
pins. As they grew older they angled for larger members 
of the finny tribe a mile west of the town, in a considerable 
stream, which was there called White Oak Creek, but in 
New England would be dignified into a river. Here, too, 
was excellent bathing ground. Ulysses was a capital swim- 
mer and an expert diver, with unusual endurance in re- 
maining under water. 

Hunting was a common amusement among the boys of the 
neighborhood. By day they pursued rabbits, gray squir- 
rels, and partridges in the woods ; at night they had the 
more exciting sport of treeing raccoons with dogs, and then 
felling the trees. In these diversions Ulysses seldom 
joined. While his comrades were playing, he was haul- 
ing loads for neighbors, or driving stage passengers home. 



1833.] A New and Improved Version. 59 

Thus lie was enabled to "be a profitable customer for 
the village confectionery, whose treasures he lavished with 
a free hand upon his playmates and young ragamuffins 
generally. 

Truthfulness usually comes with training and maturity. 
Most children, of any imagination or force of character, tell 
falsehoods shockingly, George Washington to the contrary 
notwithstanding. There is a version of the cherry-tree 
story, so much dinned into youthful ears, which at least 
has more human nature than the original. It runs thus : — 

Once there was a little boy whose name was William 
Shakespeare. One day his father, walking in the garden, 
found his favorite cherry-tree all hacked to pieces. 

"William," he asked, sternly, "who cut that cherry- 
tree?" 

" Father," replied the ingenuous boy, "I can not tell a 
lie. It was Ben Johnson who cut that cherry-tree !" 

"My son," said the parent, with tears in his eyes as he 
folded the child to his heart, "I would rather have you tell 
a hundred lies than spoil one cherry-tree !" 

But the truthfulness of Ulysses was conspicuous and un- 
deniable. The closest comrades of his boyhood insist that 
he was never guilty of a deliberate falsehood. 

Nevertheless, he was human enough to keep out of the 
category of good little boys, who are usually loved of the 
gods, or else, surviving until manhood, go straight to the 
bad. A lad, named Mount, lived a quarter of a mile from 
the tan-yard, and a schoolmate relates : — 

" I never saw Grant fighting but once. He was ten or 
eleven years old. Mount was at his wood-pile, chopping, 
when Ulysses came along, and they got into a fight. Mount 
was the larger and stouter, and when I first observed them, 
had the better of Ulysses, and was scratching him in the face, 
when Grant suddenly gave him a kick in the thigh. That 
ended the matter. Mount gave a tremendous yell, and 
started for his house, and Ulysses also scampered home at 
the top of his speed, perhaps afraid of Mount's father." 

The strict discipline of Jesse Grant's household per- 
mitted no card-playing and no attending of dancing- schools 



60 "When the Cat's Away." fi833. 

or balls ; but the boys were boys. On Sundays, it was 
the delight of young Ulysses and his playmates to col- 
lect at the tan-yard and spend the afternoon in turning 
somersaults on the bark, blacking their boots with the 
brush which was used for leather, and performing the other 
like freaks in which juvenile hearts delight. 

When he was eleven, cholera raged, and the corporate 
authorities of Georgetown sent his father to Maysville to 
procure a cholera preparation which had great local repute. 
After it was brought home, however, the disease subsided ; 
so the medicine, a sweet cordial, was stored in Jesse' s cel- 
lar. During these Sunday improprieties, while the parents 
were at church, the lads used to steal down-stairs and 
drink the palatable but "perilous stuff" in enormous 
quantities. That Ulysses the man, though exposing himself 
with great rashness, has gone through two long wars 
unharmed, is wonderful ; but that Ulysses the boy sur- 
vived these weekly allopathic doses, is a hundredfold more 
marvelous. 



1833.] A Journey to Deerfield. 61 



CHAPTER IV. 



EARLY YOUTH. 



A month "before Ulysses was eleven, an uncle by mar- 
riage, who was named Marshall, died near Deerfield, Ohio, 
the old home of the Grant family. Jesse immediately 
went to settle the affairs of his bereaved sister, and bring 
her and her five orphan children to Georgetown. Ulys- 
ses accompanied him, and it was his first considerable 
journey. 

Taking steamer from Ripley to Wellsville, and stage 
thence to New Lisbon thirty-five miles, father and son made 
the last fifteen miles on horseback. They spent two or 
three weeks with Mrs. Marshall, selling at public auction 
all the family effects, except bedding, crockery, and other 
articles easy of transportation. Then, with the widow and 
children, they turned their faces homeward. One of the 
cousins, James Marshall, was near the age of Ulysses ; and 
the two boys, riding on the coupling-pole behind the wagon, 
were delighted with the trip. 

Starting on a Monday afternoon, the party reached Deer- 
field, six miles distant, that night, and on Tuesday night, 
New Lisbon, where they "put up" at the village tavern. 
On Wednesday, finding their team overloaded, they char- 
tered a two-horse wagon, and evening found them at Wells- 
ville. There they took the steamer Lady Byron, taking 
their horses and wagon on board, and descending the river. 
A broken wheel compelled the boat to stop at Wheeling for 
several hours. Ulysses and James strolled up through the 
streets, less sleepy then than now. While they were loiter- 
ing about the City Hotel, a traveler asked young Grant :— 

" What will you take this trunk down to the steamer 
for?" 



62 A Thoroughly Boyish Trick. D 8 33. 

" A fi' -penny "bit," replied the lad. 

The five-penny bit, usually contracted to "fip" in West- 
ern months, was worth six and a quarter cents, an outlay 
which the extravagant traveler fancied he could afford. So 
Ulysses at one end, and James at the other, "bore the heavy 
trunk down to the boat half a mile away, and earned their 
reward. It is to be hoped that they never in after-life did 
so much hard work for so little money. 

There was no wharf at Wheeling. The water was nearly 
level with the top of the stone wall, from which a staging ex- 
tended to the boat. The steamer had on board many German 
emigrants, going to Louisville and Cincinnati. With genuine 
boyish fondness for mischief, the two lads so arranged the 
planks that the first person venturing upon them would tum- 
ble in. The first happened to be a little Dutch boy habited 
in a red flannel dress, and not more than three years old. 
As he stepped upon it the staging gave way, and " chuck" 
he fell into the water. The alarm was shouted, and, as he 
came up to the surface for the second time, some of his peo- 
ple caught him by the hair and lifted him out. 

The thoughtless boys were sadly frightened, but cau- 
tious enough to hold their peace, and unspeakably relieved 
to see the streaming young Teuton saved from drowning. 

The Lady Byron finally started again, and on Saturday 
the travelers reached Maysville, where they remained 
several days with relatives, before riding to their home, 
twenty miles farther. Mrs. Marshall still resides in George- 
town, and, though in her seventy-sixth year, is in the full 
possession of her faculties. 

As Jesse Grant prospered, and his quiver waxed full of 
the poor man' s blessings, he outgrew the little family dwell- 
ing ; so, shortly after his return from Deerfieid, he added a 
spacious two-story house to the old one, which he left 
standing as an L. Ulysses drove the horses for hauling all 
the brick, stone, and sand. In a few months was completed 
the Grant homestead shown in our picture, and still un- 
changed. It stands on low ground, a hundred yards east of 
the Georgetown public square, a sober brick house, its 
front very near the street ; and one side shaded by tall 



1834 1 Working in the Bark Mill. 63 

locusts, and overlooking a smaller roadway which leads up 
past the old Methodist meeting-house and the Bailey resi- 
dence. In a hollow, on the opposite side of the main street, 
stood, and yet stands, the little brick currier shop. Be- 
hind it was the tan-yard. Beside it, for a hundred feet, 
stretched a low shed — a mere roof supported by a skeleton 
of poles. Under it were piled many cords of oak bark, 
in the midst of which stood the bark-mill, with a hopper 
like an old-fashioned cider-mill. 

The bark, peeled from standing trees, is brought to the 
tan-yard in strips three feet long. In grinding, a boy stands 
holding one in his left hand, and, with a hammer in his 
right, breaks it into the hopper in pieces four or live 
inches long. Meanwhile, a horse trudging around a circle, 
and leading himself by means of a pole attached to the 
sweep which he draws, grinds the bark to powder. 

Not only is the work confining, but every time the beam 
comes around the boy must "duck," or it will strike his 
head. Ulysses heartily disliked all labor about the tan-yard, 
and had a tendency to make himself invisible whenever 
he suspected there was any to be done. But when his 
father left him to attend the bark mill, he would hire some 
other boy to take his place for twelve or fifteen cents a 
day, while he, by driving a stage passenger or hauling a 
load, earned a dollar or a dollar and a half. The young 
speculator accumulated money easily, and in the use of it 
was free, though not wasteful. 

Just before the lad was twelve, his father contracted to 
build a county jail. The job would require much hauling 
of stone, of bricks, and particularly of logs. The tanner 
had one very large horse, and Ulysses said : — 

"Father, if you will buy Paul Devore's horse to work 
beside ours, I can haul these logs for you." 

So Jesse purchased the animal for fifty-five dollars. 
Ulysses was proud of his fine-looking black horses, and 
named the new one "Dave," in irreverent compliment to 
David Devore, a Georgetown attorney. With them the lad 
did all the hauling. It was two miles from the woods to the 
site of the jail. The logs were a foot square and fourteen 



64 "Dave and Me." [i«34. 

feet long, and required a great deal of hewing, as all the 
"sap" had to be cut off. It took eleven men to do the 
hewing, but only one to " score." The hewers loaded the 
logs, while the lad simply drove the team. 

One cloudy April morning when rain was threatened, 
Ulysses went as usual for his load. After a long trip, he 
came back with his logs, and as Jesse and the hired man 
were unloading them at the jail, he remarked : — 

"Father, I reckon it's hardly worth while for me to go 
again to-day ; none of the hewers are in the woods. There 
is only one load left ; if I get that now, there will be none 
for me to haul to-morrow morning." 

" Where are the hewers ?" 

"At home, I suppose. They haven't been in the woods 
this morning." 

" Who loaded these logs ?" 

"Dave and me." 

" What do you mean by telling me such a story ?" asked 
the clear-headed, indignant father. 

"It is the truth; I loaded the logs with no help but 
Dave's." 

It was the truth. For this hauling, the body of the 
wagon had been removed, and the logs were carried upon 
the axles. It was a hard job for several men to load. They 
would take the wheels off on one side, let the axles down 
to the ground, lift on the squared logs with handspikes, 
then pry the axles up with levers, and put the wheels on 
again. That a boy could do this alone was incredible ; and 
Jesse inquired *. — 

"How in the world did you load the wagon ?" 

"Well, father, you know that sugar- tree we saw yester- 
day, which is half fallen, and lies slanting, with the top 
caught in another tree. I hitched Dave to the logs and 
drew them up on that ; then I backed the wagon up to 
it, and hitched Dave to them again, and, one at a time, 
snaked them forward upon the axles." 

The ingenious lad had used the trunk of the fallen maple 
as an inclined plane, and after hauling the logs upon it, so 
that they nearly balanced, had drawn them endwise upon 




"daveandme:' 
grant's boyhood in georgetown, ohio. 



1834 -] Ulysses Sent to Louisville. 65 

his wagon underneath with little difficulty. The feat made 
him quite famous in the neighborhood. Did it not involve 
as much inventiveness, patience, and fertility of resource as 
the wonderful campaign which ended in the capture of 
Yicksburg ? 

Ulysses worked hauling the logs all summer, with the 
exception of a single week, which he spent in Louisville. 
His father, engaged in a lawsuit, wanted a deposition taken 
in that city, and had frequently written for it without success. 
Finally he sent his first-born to attend to the business. 
Ulysses got the document and started back, but the captain 
of the steamer on which he sought passage, thinking the 
little fellow must be a runaway at first declined to take him. 
When, however, he produced a letter from his father, ex- 
plaining the business on which he had been sent, the 
admiring captain brought him back to Maysville free of 
charge. 

The jail was finished by the first of December, and then 
Jesse sold his wagon to a citizen of Aberdeen, twenty-one 
miles away. Ulysses was sent to take it there, with two 
horses, one which the purchaser had left, and a beautiful 
bright bay, not yet four years old, which he himself had 
owned only a few weeks, and had never tried in harness. 

For the first ten miles the team went well ; but then, near 
Ripley, passing a farm-house where the butchering of hogs 
was going on, the sight and smell of it made the colt quite 
frantic. In a twinkling he kicked himself out of the har- 
ness, tearing it to shreds. Ulysses sprang from the wagon, 
and firmly held the frightened beast by the bit until he was 
quiet. Then, knowing that he was, at least, an admirable 
riding-horse, Ulysses put on his saddle, brought for the 
return trip, and galloped into Ripley. There he asked of the 
first acquaintance he met : — 

" Are there any horse -buyers in town ?" 

' ' Yes, there is one collecting horses for New Orleans ; 
he is to leave with them in a few days. I reckon he is over 
there at the stable." 

To the stable Ulysses rode, and, finding his man, ac- 
costed him : — 

E 



60 Deiving a Good Baegain. [1835. 

" My horse is for sale ; are you buying ?" 

" Yes, what do you ask for him ?" 

" Sixty-five dollars, and the use of him or some other 
horse to take my wagon to Aberdeen." 

The beauty of the little steed interested the buyer, and 
he answered : — 

" I will give you sixty dollars." 

" I can't take that ; he is worth more." 

< ' Well, I will split the difference with you, and give you 
sixty-two dollars and fifty cents." 

" All right." 

The bargain was closed, the horse delivered, and the 
money paid. But then the buyer, looking again at the 
chubby lad, whose gravity of demeanor had prevented his 
diminutiveness from being noticed, added : — 

' ' You are a very small boy ; I am afraid it is hardly 
safe to buy of you." 

" Oh, if that is all, I can satisfy you," replied Ulysses. 
And he went and brought Captain Knight, an old family 
friend, who testified : — 

"It is all right ; any trade you make with this boy is 
just as sound as if you made it with his father." 

The buyer, determined not to lose sight of his new pony, 
furnished Ulysses with an old safe horse to Aberdeen, 
which the boy left in Ripley on his return, and thence went 
by stage. 

The next year, a roving New York journeyman, with a 
weakness for whisky, worked in the tan-yard. Once, hav- 
ing exhausted all his money, he took six calf- skins belong- 
ing to his employer. Not daring to offer them for sale, he 
consulted a little shoemaker, who betrayed him. Jesse 
found the hidden plunder, and soon after meeting his specu- 
lating workman in the village tavern, ordered him to leave 
town. But the journeyman was obstinate, would not go, 
and even drew a knife upon Jesse. The broad-shouldered, 
powerful tanner took the weapon away from him, sent 
Ulysses for his cowhide, and laid it over the culprit' s back 
half a dozen times with all his power. But the victim, 
neither frightened nor hurt, stood his ground till some 



1835.] The Hills " Judgment axd Mebcy." G7 

village "roughs" marched him out of town, with the warn- 
ing never to come hack. He never did. 

Ulysses, ever on the look-out for jobs for his horses, 
made frequent trips to Cincinnati, fifty miles from George- 
town. He always stopped at the Dennison House, which 
still stands on Fifth Street, between Main and Sycamore. 
He knew familiarly the landlord's son, William Dennison, 
six or eight years older than he, who lived to become Gov- 
ernor of Ohio, and Postmaster-General in the cabinet of 
Abraham Lincoln. 

Between Georgetown and White Oak Creek was a high 
ridge, very gentle on the side next the village, but almost 
perpendicular on the other. With a good deal of humor 
the people named the steep, dangerous hill, "Judgment," 
and the gentler declivity, "Mercy." On the "Judgment" 
side the villagers frequently stalled their horses with heavy 
loads. Young Grant was too good a teamster for this. One 
day a neighbor asked him : — 

"Why do your horses never get stalled V ' 

"Because I never get stalled myself," was the pithy 
answer. 

Jesse Grant, with all his thrift, was not getting rich 
rapidly. He acted thoroughly on Micawber's wisdom — 

"Annual income, £20; annual expenditure, £19 19s. Gd. — result, happi- 
ness. Annual income, £20 ; annual expenditure, £20 Qs. 6d. — result, misery. 
The blossom is blighted, the leaf withered — in short, you are forever floored." 

Whatever other agency might have taken Jesse Grant 
off his feet, he was not a man to be floored by spending 
sixpence aboye his income, or to be unmindful of the re- 
sponsibility which every sixpence involves. He worked 
hard, never speculated, was a most thrifty, indefatigable citi- 
zen of sobriety and integrity, but not so popular in the com- 
munity as a more reticent man would have been. 

He made good speeches, for he was fluent, and possessed 
an unusually retentive memory. In private, his children 
were the favorite theme. He was extremely fond, and in- 
clined to be vain of them. His first-born was nearest his 
heart. He frequently said : " Who knows but my Ulysses 



68 Ulysses's Father and Mother. [i835. 

may "be President of the United States?" But then, hun- 
dreds of thousands of parents at the same time were thinking 
the same thing of their own boys. 

He was always a politician. Three times he cast his 
vote for Jackson. When Van Buren was nominated, Jesse, 
lacking faith in him, did not vote at all ; but in 1840 he sup- 
ported Harrison, and adhered afterward to the Whig party 
as long as it lasted. He was chosen first mayor of George- 
town, but at the second election was defeated by a tailor — 
a misfortune which does not seem to be hereditary in the 
family. 

Ulysses inherited many of his best traits from his mother. 
The old residents of Georgetown speak of her with extra- 
ordinary enthusiasm and affection. She was amiable, serene, 
even-tempered, thoroughly self-forgetful, kind and consider- 
ate to all, and speaking ill of none. Her children she 
governed with tender affection, and without the rod ; and in 
return they were tractable and well-behaved, never bois- 
terous nor rude in the family circle. She was exceedingly 
reticent and exceedingly modest. Whatever she thought of 
her boys and girls in her mother-heart, she never praised 
them before others. Even now, though feeling high and 
just pride in her illustrious son, and fond of reading all that 
is said of him, she not only refrains from boasting of him, 
but sometimes blushes like a girl, and leaves the room 
when his praises are sounded in her ears ; for it seems 
akin to hearing self-praise, which she regards with unmiti- 
gated horror. In her old age, she has calm, winning 
manners, and a face still sweet and still young in the nicest 
sense of Holmes : — 

" For him in vain the envious seasons roll, 
Who bears eternal summer in his soul." 

Ulysses was sent to school before he was four years old ; but 
he began so young to drive a team and make himself useful 
to his father, that his education was sadly neglected. After 
he was eleven, he went only in the winter term, averaging 
about three months. Even then his attendance was ir- 
regular whenever he could find passengers to drive home, 



1835.] At School and in Spoets. 69 

or neighbors who wanted to visit Cincinnati. The plain, one- 
story, brick building, baldly fronting the street, without 
any pleasant surroundings, where the village youth first 
quaffed from the "Pierian Spring," is faithfully shown in 
our picture. Its exterior is still unchanged ; but no more 
emerge " the playful children just let loose from school," 
for it is now occupied as a dwelling by a family of negroes. 

He was not deemed a particularly bright boy, nor a bril- 
liant scholar except in arithmetic, in which he excelled his 
class. In other branches he was below the average. But 
no one in the school could draw such horses upon his slate 
as young Grant, and in this exercise he was exceedingly 
diligent. He would sit too, and reflect for hours with his 
slate or book hugged up against his breast, and his head a 
little cast down. His ordinary nickname was "Ulyss," or 
simply "Lyss;" but some of his comrades called him 
" Texas," because his father had visited that province and 
published a long account of his trip. Others called him 
"Hug," from his initials, H. U. G., and others still traves- 
tied his name to " Useless." 

Notwithstanding his expertness at skating, swimming, 
and riding, he was awkward in other out-door sports. But 
he had unusual fortitude, and though at ball-playing he 
was a very poor dodger, no ball could hit him hard enough 
to make him cry, or even wince. 

He attended frequent evening spelling-schools, and also 
a juvenile debating club, at which, however, he never spoke. 
Though seeming to care little for amusements, he went with 
the rest to the evening gatherings of boys and girls, playing 
his part creditably at riddles, puzzles, and other games, and 
not shrinking from the endless juvenile kissing involved 
in forfeits, though he had no special fondness for the society 
of the opposite sex. One little girl only was a particular 
favorite, and she continued so until he grew to manhood. 
But she is a staid married matron now, living near George- 
town. 

In brief, Ulysses was a sober, thoughtful boy, who pre- 
ferred the society of men to that of younger companions, but 
always as a modest and quiet listener rather than a talker. 



70 The Military Spirit Fervent. [1835. 

He was temperate — much less inclined to whisky than most 
young men in that convivial region, for whoever had grown 
virtuous, Brown County willed that there sliould Ibe cakes 
and ale. 

Military traditions were among the familiar things of his 
childhood ; stories of Samuel and Noah Grant in the old 
French war, and of his grandfather's exploits in the eight 
years of the Revolution. The military spirit also was fer- 
vent in the vicinity ; he saw much of company drill, and 
never missed the general muster in August. On this grand oc- 
casion, as many as three thousand citizen-soldiers were some- 
times drilled by their officers through the long summer day, 
with more than ordinary zeal and diligence. Even the local 
names betokened an admiration of military heroes. Ripley 
was so called in honor of General Ripley ; Scott township, 
of Winfield Scott ; and Brown County, of Ethan Allen 
Brown, all famous in the war of 1812. 

A Philadelphia journalist, who was a native of the same 
village — a little boy, who, in his own phrase " used to hang 
around the skirts of Grant's ' wamus,' ' writes : — 

"A brother of the General was a fellow-' devil ' in the printing-office in 
which we were then the younger imp. And through him we became ac- 
quainted with Ulysses, or 'Lyss,' as he was called by the boys. He was then 
a stumpy, freckle-faced, big-headed country lad of fifteen, or thereabouts, 
working in his father's tan-yard ; and we often stood by his side and exercised 
our amateur hand under his direction in breaking bark for the old bark mill 
down in the hollow. Though sneered at for his awkwardness by the scions 
of noble Kentucky who honored Georgetown with their presence, Ulysses 
was a favorite with the smaller boys of the village, who had learned to look 
up to him as a sort of a protector. 

"We well remember the stir created by the appointment of the tanner's 
son to a cadetship at West Point. The surprise among the sons of our 
doctors, lawyers, and storekeepers was something wonderful. Indeed, none 
of us boys, high or low, rich or poor, could clearly imagine how Uncle Sam's 
schoolmasters were going to transform our somewhat outre-looking comrade 
into our beau ideal of dandyism — a West Pointer. But the rude exterior of 
the bark-grinder covered a wealth of intellect, which, of course, we youngsters 
were not expected to be cognizant of. Modest and unassuming, though de- 
termined, self-reliant, and decisive then as he still seems to be — we mistook 
his shy, retiring disposition for slowness, and, looked up to as he was by us all, 
we must confess there was much joking at his expense as we gathered of 
evenings in the court-house square." 



1838.] A Student at Maysville and Ripley. 71 

Beside Ulysses, there were in due season five other 
children, — Simpson, Clara, Virginia, Orvil L., and Mary- 
Frances. Virginia now resides with her father in Coving- 
ton, and Mary is the wife of a clergyman, at present the 
American consul at Leipsic. Both are ladies of unusual 
talent and most estimable character. Orvil is a Chicago 
leather merchant, with one of the largest establishments 
in the West. Simpson and Clara both died of consumption 
a few years ago. 

When Ulysses was nearly fourteen, his life was varied 
by a winter at Maysville, Kentucky. The schools there were 
better than in Georgetown, and to their advantages he was 
bid by the widow of his uncle, Peter Grant, who resided 
there. Two years later he was sent for a few months to the 
Presbyterian Academy at Eipley, where he boarded with 
Marion Johnson, a citizen still living. 

He was a plant of slow growth ; looking little like his 
father, but much like his aunt, Mrs. Rachael Tompkins, of 
Charlestown, West Virginia, and inheriting the " Grant 
face," with its Scotch look of strength, spirit, and deter- 
mination, and, when smiling, its peculiar twist of the under 
lip. 

Thus the boy grew up in a pleasant, well-ordered family, 
trained by a thoughtful father of great energy and integrity, 
and by a mother so tender, so faithful, so calm, so heavenly 
tempered, that former neighbors speak of her as men are 
wont to speak only of their own mothers. In this home he 
was surrounded by pure influences only — a religious house- 
hold, the frugality and simplicity of working people in 
humble life, the hospitality and open-handed kindness of 
a new country. On the other hand, schools were poor and 
infrequent, the standard of public morality none of the 
highest, and the temptations to excess in drink many and 
powerful. 

With him the home influence proved the stronger, and 
at seventeen years of age he was noted as an honorable, 
trustworthy youth, above all meanness, incapable of any 
crooked ways. Yet a citizen of Georgetown, asked to 
select the boys likely to achieve distinction, would have 



72 Ulysses' Standing at Seventeen. t 1838 - 

placed Ulysses Grant very low upon the list. He was not 
" "brilliant," and his neighbors, like most Americans, con- 
founded "brilliancy with greatness, and suspected good sense 
and clever judgment of being stupid. Friends of the family 
would have predicted : — 

" He will be a horse-trader or a livery-stable keeper, an 
energetic business man, accumulating money largely and 
expending it freely, but always a trifle slow, and never des- 
tined to make a mark in the world." 

Well muses the melancholy Claude— "Wise judges are 
we of each other I" A hundred years before, another boy had 
been reared whose youth was just as unnoticeable, who was 
equally silent and thoughtful, equally indifferent to books, 
and chiefly remarkable for his love of athletic sports. If 
lie had died young, he would only have been remembered, 
if remembered at all, as one who left a mark upon the 
Natural Bridge, where he had thrown a stone twenty feet 
higher than any other man or boy in Virginia. But in that 
Providence which confounds the wisdom of the wise, he 
lived to become ' ' first in war, first in peace, and first in the 
hearts of his countrymen." 



1839.] Plans for Futuee Life. 73 



CHAPTER V. 



WEST POINT. 



In the winter of 1838-9 Ulysses was nearly seventeen. 
Though small of his age, he was a rugged boy, who had 
never been ill a day in his life. His frugal father said to 
him:— 

" I reckon you are now old enough to go to work in the 
beam-house." 

Now the most unpleasant part of a tanner' s labor is in 
this very "beam-house," and consists chiefly of cleaning 
the raw hides of flesh and hair and dirt, by means of a 
long knife, with handles at each end. Ulysses, though un- 
complaining and diligent, disliked every branch of the busi- 
ness, and he replied, with unusual vehemence : — 

"Well, father, I'll work here till I am one-and-twenty, 
if you require me to ; but I will never do a day' s work at 
tanning after that." 

"I don't want you to do this now, unless you expect 
to follow it in after-life. What do you want to be ?" 

" I should like to be a farmer, or a Mississippi trader, or 
to get an education." 

The tanner pondered. He had no farm to give his son. 
The life of a Mississippi River flatboat trader, with its many 
temptations, he did not approve of ; nor did he feel, though 
possessed of ten or twelve thousand dollars, that he could, 
in justice to his five other children, afford to send even his 
first-born to college. He thought of West Point, which had 
already won a high reputation, and some of whose graduates 
were leading men — especially in the militia organizations, 
more honored then than of later years. At the Military 
Academy his son could be liberally educated at the coun- 
try' s expense, and serve it afterward in an honorable posi- 
tion. Ulysses knew all about that school, as George Bailey, 



74 A Vacancy at West Point. [i839. 

his nearest neighbor and playmate, had entered there but a 
short time before. So when his father asked, 

" How would you like to go to West Point ?" he replied, 
sententiously : — 

" First rate." 

" Then," said the prompt parent, " I will make applica- 
tion at once." 

The prospect was not promising. The Congressional 
district was supposed to have a single cadet there already — 
all it was entitled to. But each United States senator also 
could make one appointment ; and in Clermont County, a 
few miles away, lived Senator Thomas Morris. While a 
poor boy, he had come from Virginia to free Ohio. After- 
ward, while a day-laborer, and without any instructor, he 
began the study of the law, and finally attained eminence 
in its practice. He had been for twenty-four years a mem- 
ber of the legislature, and chief-justice of the State. Now 
in the Upper House of Congress, he had won national fame 
by his gallant and able defense of freedom of the press, of 
speech, and of petition, against the most violent slavehold- 
ing opposition. To him Jesse Grant wrote, asking if he 
had a vacancy at West Point. Morris replied : — 

" I have not. There being no application for the cadetship, I waived my 
right to appoint in favor of a member of Congress from Pennsylvania. But 
there is a vacancy in your own district, and doubtless Mr. Hamer, your repre- 
sentative, will fill it with your son." 

There was a vacancy. After admission, young Bailey 
had failed, on the first semi-annual examination. His father 
placed him under a private tutor, and got him reappointed, 
but ill-fortune still pursued him. In his second year he 
was expelled on a trifling charge of the delinquency so 
common in schools — reporting himself ill when he was not. 
The punishment was so disproportioned to the offense, that 
he was afterward reinstated ; but he declined to return, and 
went to Illinois, in his mortification not even visiting his 
own home, though he passed down the Ohio within ten miles 
of it. 

His family had been silent on the subject, and all the 
neighbors supposed him still at West Point. Ultimately his 



1839.] Ulysses "Simpson" Gkant Appointed. 75 

military education proved of service to him. In the war for 
the Union he served as colonel of the Mnth Loyal Virginia 
regiment ; and in 1861, in a skirmish at Guyandotte, West 
Virginia, he was killed. 

The member of Congress from the Georgetown district 
was Thomas L. Hamer, a lawyer of distinction, and a "bril- 
liant orator, who was now regarded by the Democracy as a 
possible candidate for the Presidency. To him Jesse Grant 
wrote, and Hamer received the letter on the evening of March 
3, 1839, a few hours before the expiration of his last term 
in the House. He immediately dispatched a note to Joel R. 
Poinsett, of South Carolina, Secretary of War, asking the 
appointment, but without referring again to Jesse's letter 
for the first name of the applicant, as the Grant family, 
being his neighbors, were all known to him. Confounding 
the name of Ulysses with that of his younger brother, he 
asked the Secretary for the appointment of Ulysses Simp- 
son, and then wrote back to Jesse : "I received your letter 
and have asked for the appointment of your son, which 
will doubtless be made. Why didn't you apply to me 
sooner V ' 

Hamer got home several days before this letter. Jesse 
surprised at his seeming neglect, said nothing to him on 
the subject, and he wondering at Jesse's ingratitude was 
likewise silent. But at length the delayed letter came, and 
with it an appointment to the Military Academy filled out 
for Ulysses Simpson Grant. 

In vain after reaching West Point did Ulysses attempt 
to get his own baptismal name substituted. Red Tape 
argued that the appointment must be right ; and Red Tape 
proved too much for him. So, he could only acquiesce in 
the name, which, first applied to him through a curious 
blunder, has proved a shirt of Nessus ever since. 

The unexpected appointment caused some wonder in the 
little town. Even admiring friends of Ulysses marveled 
that such a "homespun" boy should be sent to West 
Point. The same neighbor after whom the youth had 
once named a horse, and perhaps, in revenge for that dubious 
compliment, accosted Jesse on the street : — 



76 Reaches the Military Academy. [i839. 

" So Hamer lias made Ulyss a cadet ?" 

"Yes!" 

" I am astonislied that lie did not appoint some one with 
intellect enough to do credit to the district." 

For a long time the father was very sore oyer the unkind 
remark, though he enjoys the memory of it now. 

Until his appointment came, Ulysses' chief Ibooks had 
been, not woman s looks, but horses' idiosyncracies. Now, 
however, he began to tit himself for the Military Academy, 
studying and reciting to one Baldwin Summers of George- 
town, a professional teacher, with a good deal of reputation 
as a penman and mathematician. 

Meanwhile, the lad' s careful mother was preparing his 
outfit. He had saved about a hundred dollars. He spent 
twenty-five for new clothing and the like, and had seventy- 
five for his journey. Sixty dollars was required by the 
West Point rules as a deposit, to pay the student' s expenses 
home if he should not pass examination, or should after- 
ward be expelled. 

On the morning of the fifteenth of May, 1839, U]ysses, 
in his eighteenth year, parted from his mother and younger 
brothers and sisters at the door of the old homestead. Then 
he went across the street to say good-bye to Mrs. Bailey. 
She and her daughters bade him farewell with tears. This 
touched the undemonstrative boy, who exclaimed : — 

"Why, you must be sorry I am going. They didn't cry 
at our house." 

These early friends of his he has never ceased to regard 
with affection. 

On his way to West Point he spent several days with 
his mother' s relatives in Philadelphia. That city he had 
always longed to see, and he wandered about the streets, 
Franklin-like, spending his money freely, until he had 
barely enough left with which to finish his journey. On 
the tenth of June he reached West Point, passed his exam- 
ination without difficulty, and entered at once upon his 
scholastic duties. 

The site of the Military Academy had much to stir the 
enthusiasm, and its history much to captivate the imagina- 




THE NORVH BARRACKS. THE MESS HALL . 

CADET GRANT AT WEST POINT. 



i7n.] Its Scenery and Stirring Memories. 77 

tion of the young cadet. It occupies a beautiful plateau 
on the west bank of the Hudson, fifty-two miles above 
New York. Half a mile in the rear, and five hundred feet 
higher, a bluff is crowned with old Fort Putnam. From 
the parade ground of the Academy, one hundred and 
fifty feet above the water, one looks out upon some of the 
loveliest scenery on the eastern half of our continent. Below 
runs the placid blue river and on every side rise the haze- 
covered crests of Butter Hill, Crow's Nest, Breakneck 
Mountain, and other lovely peaks of the Highlands. 

The region is rich in memorials of our struggle for Inde- 
pendence. The British were exceedingly anxious to obtain 
control of the Hudson, for with uninterrupted passage to 
its head-waters and beyond, by the use of portages and 
Lakes George and Champlain, could they reach the great 
lakes and even the Mississippi. The Colonists were equally 
alive to the importance of the river, and by order of the 
Continental Congress, fortifications were begun in the High- 
lands in 1775. 

The next spring, Doctor Benjamin Franklin, accompanied 
by Samuel Chase and Charles Carroll of Carrollton, commis- 
sioners, on their way to Canada to invite her to join in our 
Revolutionary struggle, visited these works, and reported 
their strength at twenty-nine guns, and one hundred and 
twenty -four men. They were afterward greatly strength- 
ened and enlarged ; but, in the autumn of 1777, General Sir 
Henry Clinton, the British commander at New York, cap- 
tured and demolished them all. 

In one fort was Moll Pitcher, wife of an artillerist, — 
a stout Irish woman of only twenty-two, with red hair, 
freckled face, and bright piercing eyes. When her husband 
saw the enemy scaling the parapet, he dropped his port-fire 
and tied ; but Molly picked it up, and fired the last shot for 
^he Americans. Seven months later, at the battle of Mon- 
mouth, she brought water from a neighboring spring to her 
husband, who was serving his gun. Just as she was ap- 
proaching him with a fresh bucketful, he fell, struck dead by 
a British shot, The captain of the battery, having no one 
else to take his place, ordered the piece withdrawn, but 



78 Moll Pitcher's Life and Death. t 1 ^ 8 - 

Molly hearing this, dropped her bucket, seized the rammer, 
and performed gunner's duty during the rest of the battle. 
The next morning, covered with dirt and blood, she was 
presented to Washington, who appointed her a sergeant, 
and had her placed on the half-pay list for life. She re- 
mained in the army through the war, usually wearing a 
cocked hat, and an artilleryman' s coat over her frock. She 
was a great favorite among the soldiers, and was known, 
not only to them, but also on the official records, as "Cap- 
tain Molly." After the restoration of peace, she returned to 
her old home near West Point, where she drew subsistence 
from the commissary, and after a long sickness, she died, 
in 1789. The archives of the post contain curiosities in 
official literature, in the form of letters from the Secretary 
of War to the quartermaster, authorizing him to order 
"shifts" and other clothing for Captain Molly, at the ex- 
pense of the Government. 

The works in the Highlands were soon rebuilt ; and, in 
1778, the quartermaster-general of the Continental army 
contracted with the Sterling Iron-works to construct a chain 
" five hundred yards long, each link two feet long, made of 
iron, two and a quarter inches square, with a swivel every 
hundred feet, and a clevis every thousand feet." 

The chain was completed, and laid across the river in 
April of the same year. Sixteen link£, still preserved at 
West Point, one in the Institute Library of Hartford, Con- 
necticut, and several in the Redwood Library of Newport, 
Rhode Island, show the form of the huge cable. It was 
buoyed by pointed logs sixteen feet long, and held in its 
place by many anchors. Every autumn it was taken up by 
means of a windlass, and coiled in a huge pile on the river 
bank. 

Just below this single chain was a double one, or boom, 
also resting upon logs, and designed, as the more formidable 
obstruction, to receive the first shock of approaching ves- 
sels. Both were stretched across near the present parade 
ground, where sailing vessels which had just come around 
the short bend could get little headway before striking 
them. 



1780.] Obstructing Rivees with Chains. 79 

At Fort Putnam, and the other heights on both sides of 
the river, heavy guns completely commanded the bend, and 
could have knocked a ship to pieces while she was strug- 
gling with the chain. Now the sites of these old fortifica- 
tions, where the soil was thrown up, are marked only by 
taller and stouter cedars than grow on the neighboring 
crests. 

Six miles below, at Fort Montgomery, was still another 
chain. But the enemy kept very clear of these obstructions ; 
so their efficacy was never tested. Modern experience, 
however, proves them of little value against armored steam- 
vessels. Like torpedoes, however frightful in theory, they 
prove harmless in practice. 

During our war for the Union, the Rebel General Pillow 
— the same who in Mexico dug his ditch on the wrong side 
of his breastwork — attempted to stretch a chain across the 
Mississippi in front of Columbus, Kentucky. But it broke 
of its own weight, and was known in the neighborhood as 
"Pillow's Folly." Another chain stretched across below 
New Orleans, was supported by hulls of ships anchored 
in the stream. But, though batteries at each end commanded 
it, a party of Farragut's men cut it with hammers and cold 
chisels in less than half an hour, without losing a life, so 
that the ponderous structure, hulls and all, swung around 
to shore, the fleet passed, and New Orleans was captured. 
No chain across a broad river can be so strong that a heavy 
steam-vessel at full headway, striking it near the middle, 
is not likely to brush it away like a spider' s web. 

But though these obstructions discouraged any attempt 
at force, they could not save the key of the Highlands from 
passing into the hands of the enemy through treachery. 
A prominent American officer seized the opportunity to 
achieve eternal infamy. He proposed to take out a link and 
send it to the smith' s, ostensibly for repairs, that free pas- 
sage up the river might be open to the British. This was 
General Benedict Arnold. He possessed unquestionable 
civil and military abilities, and had served his country on 
the field with distinguished gallantry ; but common rumor 
charged him with being in secret and corrupt partnership 



80 Darkest Days of the Revolution". [ifso. 

with army contractors. Both Washington and the Provin- 
cial Congress, fancying that there must be some fire under 
all this smoke, had many suspicions touching his integrity, 
though none whatever concerning his patriotism, and long 
denied him the promotion which his good fighting had fairly 
earned. With all the bitterness of an egotistical nature, he 
resented this, and bided his time to revenge it by a deadly 
blow. 

The opportunity came. In 1780, in compliance with his 
own request, he was placed in command at West Point. 
The post was deemed our Thermopylse. The works had 
cost more than three millions of dollars, and the American 
engineers held them impregnable to an army thirty thousand 
strong. The general belief was that their loss, by severing 
the East from the West, would be fatal to the national 
cause. It was the most trying point in the Revolution. 
Many were weary of the protracted struggle, and ready to 
to give up in despair. A powerful party had been formed 
against Washington, particularly in New England, Penn- 
sylvania, and Virginia, and Congress hampered him in many 
ways. Continental paper money was almost worthless ; a 
bounty of fifteen hundred dollars was offered for boys for nine 
months ; and the salary of a major-general was hardly suffi- 
cient to keep his horse supplied with oats. Regiment after 
regiment of the ill-paid, ill-fed, ill- clothed soldiers mutinied, 
until subordinate commanders were authorized to punish 
stragglers by whipping, and even in loyal neighborhoods, 
it was found necessary to declare martial law before the 
people would let their corn and beef go to the army for 
the depreciated currency. 

This period of wide-spread doubt and despair Arnold 
chose as the fit moment for personal treachery and pub- 
lic treason. He proposed, in consideration of thirty thou- 
sand dollars and a commission in the British army, to give 
up to the enemy, not only the important post under his 
charge, but also the person of George Washington, com- 
mander-in-chief. He held several interviews with Major 
John Andre, adjutant-general of the British army. After 
one of these, at a house, yet standing, south of West Point, 



1780.] Arnold Escapes to the Enemy. 81 

Andre, trying to get back into the British lines at lS~ew York, 
fell into the hands of the " Cow Boys." This partisan organ- 
ization existing on the neutral ground between the lines of 
the two armies, claimed to be British in sympathy, but was 
chiefly inspired by love of plunder. Andre, thoroughly 
frank by nature, unguardedly permitted the Cow Boys to 
learn that he was a British officer of high rank. Either 
from some spark of patriotism at bottom, or from hope of 
the liberal reward they afterward received, these plun- 
derers turned him over promptly to the American authori- 
ties. 

Washington the while was on a visit to West Point. 
Arnold, sitting at the breakfast-table with his guest and 
chief, received a note from the stupid subordinate into 
whose hands Andre had fallen, and who followed military 
routine so closely that he sent forward Andre's papers to 
Arnold, of whose own treachery they contained indubitable 
evidence. The traitor read the note with unmoved coun- 
tenance, excused himself for a moment to the commander- 
in-chief, and went up to his chamber, followed by his wife, 
who was enough in his confidence to fear for his safety. 
He told her his danger, and she fell on the floor in a swoon. 
He, waiting only to kiss his sleeping babe, then six months 
old, — who arose in after years to the rank of lieutenant- 
general in the British service,* — dashed down a walk still 
known as "Arnold's path," and, under cover of a white 
handkerchief raised upon a stick, escaped in his barge, and 
found refuge on board the Vulture, a British vessel. A 
few minutes later, Washington, learning of his treachery, 
turned to General Knox and asked, with tears running down 
his cheeks : — 

"Whom can we trust now ?" 

He immediately had Andre tried by a board of six 
major-generals, and eight brigadiers, including La Fayette, 
Steuben, Knox, and other eminent and patriotic soldiers of 
the army. Clinton, the British general-in-chief, with whom 

* One of Benedict Arnold's grandsons is a respected clergyman of the Church of 
England. 

F 



82 The Romantic Memory of Andre. t n8 °- 

Andre was a great favorite, made strong efforts to save 
him, offering many concessions if he could be spared, and 
threatening retaliation if lie should be executed. The point 
uiwd against his technical guilt was, that he had come into 

CJ CJ CJ ' 

the American lines in his uniform, and had only exchanged 
it for a disguise when on his way out, at the urgent de- 
sire of an American officer (Arnold), with whom he had 
been conferring. But he was clearly a spy. The board 
unanimously found him guilty, and sentenced him to be 
hanged one week from the date of his capture. He was 
very anxious to die a soldier' s death ; but Washington 
held the times so perilous as to require an example, and 
steadfastly resisted all the pressure brought to bear upon 
him. So Andre, who had won greatly upon the sympathies 
of his captors, met his fate manfully, and was hanged at 
Tappan in presence of the whole army. To the memory of 
this young man of only twenty-nine, this tender son and 
affectionate brother, accomplished, cultivated, and capti- 
vating in mind and person, who suffered for the unpunished 
treachery of an infamous traitor, a compassionate and ro- 
mantic interest will always cling. Yet, by the well-defined 
laws of war, he was justly condemned to death. The Trum- 
bull Gallery at New Haven contains a lock of his hair, and 
an excellent pen-and-ink sketch of him, which he presented 
to an American officer. He himself drew it at a table in his 
guard-room, without even the aid of a mirror, on the day 
before his execution. Thirty years after his death, his re- 
mains were disinterred and removed to Westminster Abbey, 
where they now rest, under an imposing monument, among 
the illustrious dead of his native country, in whose service 
he met so unhappy a fate. 

Soon after the Revolution, our Government bought West 
Point for a permanent military post, at the suggestion of 
Alexander Hamilton, then Secretary of War. In 1794, a 
military school was established there, upon the recom- 
mendation of Washington. All his cabinet approved it, 
except Jefferson, who, very tender about the Constitution 
until he became President himself, could find no authority 
for it in that instrument. 



i83i.] Wixfield Scott ox West Point. 83 

Two buildings of Revolutionary origin were yet stand- 
ing when Grant became a cadet. The earliest students 
were quartered in the old log barracks of the Revolution, 
boarded promiscuously in the neighborhood, and were 
instructed in a two-story wooden building. With the pass- 
ing years various laws were enacted, modifying the govern- 
ment and character of the Academy. Until 1818 it was 
conducted with little system or regularity, but after that 
time it greatly improved. The prejudice against it has 
always been strong throughout the country. Once a 
bill was introduced in Congress to abolish it altogether, 
and Representative Franklin Pierce, of New Hampshire, 
supported it in a strong speech ; but during the Mexi- 
can Avar he became convinced of the utility and necessity 
of the institution. Subsequent experience has fully con- 
firmed this. Not only have its graduates performed our 
most important engineering works on railways and the 
like, in civil life, but in every war their value to the coun- 
try has been inestimable. Thus far with us wars have 
occurred about once in a generation. In the Revolution, 
there were but few men who had served in the French and 
Indian war ; in the war of 1812, few who had served in the 
Revolution ; and in the Mexican war, few who had served 
in the war of 1812. In fighting the Rebellion, there were 
more who had been in the Mexican war, but none who 
had acquired much prominence there. General Scott 
testified : — 

" But for our graduated cadets, the war with Mexico might, and proba- 
bly would, have lasted some four or five years, with more defeats than vic- 
tories falling to our share, whereas in less than two campaigns we conquered 
a great country and a peace, without the loss of a single battle or skirmish." 

John C. Calhoun, while Secretary of War, desired to 
establish another military institution in the Southern States, 
but, not succeeding in this, worked zealously to add to the 
efficiency of the West Point Academy. In one of his offi- 
cial reports, he urged upon Congress : — 

" It ought never to be forgotten that the military science in the present 
condition of the world can not be neglected with impunity. It has become 
so complicated and extensive as to require for its acquisition extensive means 



84 West Point saves the Country. [isei. 

and much time to be exclusively devoted to it. It can only flourish under 
the patronage of the Government, and without such patronage it must he 
almost wholly neglected. A comparatively small sum expended in time of 
peace to foster and extend the knowledge of military science, will, in the 
event of war, he highly beneficial to the country, and may oe the means of 
its safety." 

It was ultimately our "means of safety" when the civil 
war Tblazed, which Calhoun's own teachings had done so 
much to kindle. And though at different times the Academy 
had Ibeen under the general supervision of Jefferson Davis 
and John B. Floyd, Secretaries of War, and under the im- 
mediate charge of Robert E. Lee and P. G. T. Beauregard, 
superintendents, and though its tone, like that of the army, 
was strongly Southern, it proved of the greatest service to 
the Union cause. No single officer attained much eminence 
who was not a graduate. 

At the outset of the Rebellion there were eighty-six 
cadets at West Point from the Southern States. Of these, 
sixty-five were discharged, dismissed, or resigned from 
causes connected with the civil war, while twenty- one 
remained to prosecute their studies. At the same time our 
army had one thousand and seventy-four officers, including 
two hundred and seventy of Southern birth. Two hundred 
and two of these went with the Rebels, accompanied by fifty 
others from the Northern or Border States, most of whom 
had married Southern wives or acquired Southern prop- 
erty." 

* Boynton's "West Point," and Badeau's " Military History of Grant." 



1841 -] How Cadets APwE Teeated. 85 



CHAPTER VI. 

GRADUATES. 

Each Congressional district in the United States lias a 
cadet at the Military Academy, and whenever he graduates, 
or is dismissed, the representative names another. The 
President also can appoint ten each year, and is unre- 
stricted as to locality. 

The whole number of cadets is limited "by law to two 
hundred and fifty, but General Grant, while Secretary of 
War, recommended its increase to four hundred. Cadet 
rank is a regular one in our army, between sergeant and sec- 
ond lieutenant. On first admission, the cadet is sworn into 
the service of the United States, in which he is to continue 
eight years unless previously discharged. Most do serve 
from ten to thirteen years, including their four years at the 
Academy. 

The average age of admission is eighteen, and the maxi- 
mum twenty-one. A large majority of the appointees have 
always been children of poor parents. This is ascer- 
tained by marching the cadets on a given day to the 
adjutant's office to record the occupations and pecuniary 
circumstances of their fathers. The latter they give by 
responding "indigent," "moderate," or "affluent," as 
the case may be. Each answer is recorded, but not 
made known to the other students, lest thoughtless boys 
should ridicule comrades for poverty. Not only does 
the poor orphan receive the same consideration and facili- 
ties for graduating with distinction as the son of the 
most wealthy and distinguished citizen, but of cadets 
dropped out or expelled before graduating, far the larger 
number, proportionately, are sons of rich men, who, ac- 
customed to luxury, find a soldier's discipline and fare 
unattractive. 



S6 Only an Inch to Spare. t 1841 - 

At the outset every cadet is rigidly examined "both by a 
medical board and by the professors, and rejected if he has 
any serious physical or mental disqualification. This pre- 
liminary examination is purposely severe, to keep out unfit 
applicants and see that only the best and most promising 
boys are trained for future officers of our army. Many are 
rejected at the start, and less than half of those who gain 
admission ever graduate. 

The military art, regarding man as a machine, must have 
standards of height for its academies and armies. That of 
the British Life Guards is six feet ; that of our army, five 
feet five inches just now, but it is made higher when recruits 
are plentiful and lower when they are rare. The standard at 
"West Point is Hye feet. Cadet Grant, on admission, had 
barely one inch to spare. Had he been but an inch and a 
quarter shorter, the doors would have been closed against 
him. Who then would have captured Donelson — and 
opened the Mississippi — and whipped Lee— and moved 
upon the enemy's works generally, " smashing things" 
as he went % During his stay at the Academy, Grant added 
two or three inches to his stature. He is now five feet 
eight inches high, and his average weight is one hundred 
and sixty pounds. 

The preliminary mental examination of the young cadet 
is simple — too simple to warrant one barely able to pass it 
in expecting to graduate. He is only required to be 
familiar with the elementary rules of arithmetic, and toler^ 
ably proficient in reading, writing, and spelling. 

From the first of July the accepted cadet ranks as a 
member of the lowest class, and from that time until gradu- 
ating receives the pay of a non-commissioned officer in our 
army. It is now thirty dollars per month ; in Grant' s time 
it was less. From this, clothing, mess bills, and other ex- 
penses are deducted. The design is simply to support the 
cadet. Possibly, if he is very frugal, he may come out at 
the end of four years with a little surplus to pay his 
expenses home. Ingalls graduated with Uncle Samuel his 
debtor one hundred and fifty dollars ; but Grant' s accounts 
were just square with our indulgent relative. 



1841.] Routine of Study and Deill. 87 

For six months after admission the cadet is on probation ; 
then, in January, if he passes his second examination, he 
is regularly sworn into the service of the United States. 
The entire corps of cadets is organized into four companies, 
each commanded "by some commissioned officer of our 
ami} 7 ", and each composed of members taken indiscrimi- 
nately from the four classes. The captain of a company has 
three cadet lieutenants, four sergeants, and four corporals, 
under him, selected by the commandant for unusual merit, 
and according to the rank of their classes. The first-year 
cadets are privates ; the second and third, competent to act 
as corporals and sergeants, and during the fourth as captains 
and lieutenants. The one deemed the best soldier is selected 
as adjutant, for his duties are difficult. Next in importance 
comes the quartermaster, then the company captains and 
lieutenants. The cadets treat their comrades acting as 
officers with strict military decorum when they are on duty, 
but officers do not act as spies on their fellow-students. 
Grant, quiet and unambitious, was never made lieutenant 
or captain ; but he was appointed cadet-sergeant, and 
filled the position satisfactorily. That can only be done 
by a prompt, attentive, and efficient student. His taste did 
not crave, nor his qualities seem to warrant, any higher 
rank. 

Cadet privates perform in rotation the duties of sentinels 
and guards night and day during July and August, when 
they are encamped in tents upon the plain, under all the 
regulations, discipline, and by-laws of an army in the field. 
They are drilled iive days in the week from March to No- 
vember, and several times daily during the summer en- 
campment. They are awakened by the drum at five o'clock 
in the morning, drummed to their meals, drummed to study 
and military duty, and drummed to sleep at night. Among 
other accomplishments they are taught dancing. In the 
morning they study five hours ; then dinner and roll-call at 
one, P. M. ; then a drill from two until four ; then freedom, 
with the exception of dress parade at sundown, until ten 
at night, when lights must be extinguished. 

The cadet is allowed to bring from home sheets, pillow- 



S8 How Offenses are Punished. t 1841 - 

cases, and a few such unmilitary luxuries ; but Ms regu- 
lar allotment is blanket, pillow, cot, looking-glass, bucket, 
wash-bowl, cocoa-nut dipper, broom, and candlestick. 

Smoking is, of course, forbidden, and offers therefore to 
the juvenile mind the sweetness of stolen waters. Fre- 
quent are the fumes of tobacco reported by keen-nosed 
sentinels, and many the cigars or meerschaums confiscated 
by the authorities. Students are forbidden to receive 
money from friends, but sometimes do so surreptitiously, 
and invest it as quick as possible in ices, suppers, or less 
harmless indulgence, lest it likewise be confiscated. 

Discipline is rigidly maintained ; hence there are none 
of the riots or uprisings so common in our civil colleges. 
The extreme punishments are expulsion, suspension for one 
year, extra guard duty, shortened recreation, and confine- 
ment to tent or darkened room. Lighter offenses are visited 
by demerit marks. Disobedience to orders and sitting or 
lying while on guard receive ten demerits in the black book ; 
" trilling" in ranks or on parade, "late," "unbuttoned 
coat," and "unblacked boots," five. 

Ordinary penalties are decreed by the superintendent. 
Confinement to prison or dismissal is only inflicted by court- 
martial. Any cadet who receives a hundred demerits in 
deportment in six months is dismissed. All punishments 
are avoided as far as possible. The student' s honor is relied 
upon. Even when the commandant suspects, but does not 
know, a student to be guilty of falsehood, he treats his state- 
ment as true. The great purpose is to instill the feeling 
that tin- cadet is a gentlemen and a soldier, and can, there- 
fore, do no dishonorable thing, even in trivial matters. 

Horseback exercise is strictly insisted upon, and the 
lads are constantly drilled at leaping hurdles, bearing off 
rings upon the points of sabers, and other equestrian 
feats. 

The academic course is more severe than in our regular 
colleges in every thing except the dead languages. These 
are omitted, but English, French, and Spanish are carefully 
taught. Mathematics is the basis of chemistry, natural 
philosophy, geometry — indeed of the whole education. 



i84i.] What the Ghaduate has Learned. 89 

The course of study lias been little modified since Grant' s 
day, though additions have been made to it. The uniform, 
too, has been somewhat changed, and discipline somewhat 
relaxed. 

A perfect or maximum recitation is represented on the 
records by a figure 3, which the students call a "max." 
From this the numbers run down fractionally to zero. The 
minute and exact record thus kept, is posted up at the 
end of the week. This determines the cadet's standing 
in his class, and the average of it his regular scholarship. 
One hundred zero marks in six months will cause his ex- 
pulsion. 

The examinations are rigid and impartial. The annual 
one of the whole corps, in June, is attended by a full aca- 
demic board, and a board of examiners appointed by the 
President of the United States. The semi-annual one, in 
January, is conducted by the professors alone. After ad- 
mission, the two severest examinations occur respectively 
at the end of the first six months and the first year. Even 
at these, a student, "posed" by some problem, may be 
saved by his general character — that is, his good record on 
recitations in the weekly and monthly reports ; but if his 
marks there fall below the average, and he also makes a 
poor showing to the examiners, he is dismissed. 

The awkward cadet, at first the butt of the older stu- 
dents, is soon molded into a soldier. At the end of four 
years, which have accustomed him to military service and 
discipline, he graduates, capable of drilling a regiment, 
taking in at a glance an offensive or defensive position, 
overseeing the construction of a field fortification, block- 
house, bridge, building, or roadway, and drawing maps 
and plans. He has spent nearly one year in actual field 
service, living in tents, and performing full military duty ; 
and in times of peace he can build railways, forts, and 
lighthouses. 

In Grant's day, the famous North and South Barracks 
were yet standing. The rooms of the former each held 
four cadets — those of the latter, two. Young Grant was 
lodged sometimes in one, sometimes in the other. The old 



90 Ulysses Thrashes a Classmate. [i839. 

barracks of stone and "brick, which were then the distin- 
guishing feature of the Academy, are now replaced "by 
more imposing and modern ones of stone. 

When Grant entered, at the age of seventeen, he was a 
plump, fair-complexioned, beardless youth from the coun- 
try, rustic in manners and careless in dress. There was the 
usual disposition of the school-"boy race the world over to 
impose upon the new-comer, but his readiness to take a 
joke was his best defense. The students of the first year 
are called "Flebes." In forming squads to go to meals or 
roll-call, they begin at the right and take their places toward 
the left in the order in which they reported at the beginning 
of the term. In Grant's class was one Jack Lindsay. His 
father was an old army colonel, whose fellow- officers and 
comrades had made a pet of Jack, already a tall, stout fel- 
low, and something of a dandy. His place was on the left 
of Grant, whom he one day crowded out. Grant, thinking 
it might be a mistake, and slow to take offense, said nothing 
till after roll-call, when he quietly told Lindsay not to do it 
again. The very next time, however, Lindsay, to show his 
contempt for the raw lad from the backwoods, repeated the 
indignity. To his infinite surprise and the general delight of 
their classmates, Grant instantly knocked down his larger 
comrade, and administered to him that effectual dose which 
has taken the nonsense and ill -manners out of so many boys 
— a sound thrashing. Lindsay interfered with him no more ; 
and the other l ' Plebes ' ' saw that, with all his good-humor, 
' ' Uncle Sam ' ' was not to be imposed upon. 

There were few less prominent students at West Point. 
He v T as simply a quiet, well-behaved rustic lad, at first 
considered a specimen of unpretending mediocrity. One 
of his old tutors writes : — 

" I remember him well. He was a tiny-looking little fellow, with an in- 
dependent air, and a good deal of determination. It is a long time ago; bnt 
when I recall old scenes, I can still see Grant, with his overalls strapped 
down on his boots, standing in front of the quarters. It seems but yesterday 
since I saw him going to the riding hall, with his spurs clanging on the 
ground, and his great cavalry sword dangling by his side." 

As he became better known, he grew popular among 



1841.] Nicknames of the Cadets. 91 

comrades and professors for his purity, amiability, and 
modesty. In most studies lie was fair, but reputed indo- 
lent, and not at all brilliant. Still, lie had a knack of 
getting at the pith of things, and, even when answering a 
question incorrectly, never did it mechanically, but could 
give some clear, well-defined reason for the faith that was 
in him. In mathematics he excelled. Several, more ambi- 
tious than he, stood higher ; but the only two classmates 
who overtopped him in capacity were Franklin and Quin- 
by. The class contained several other cadets who became 
well known as generals during our Avar for the Union — 
Ingalls, Hardie, Augur, Judah, Charles S. Hamilton, and 
Frederick Steele. 

As in all schools and colleges, the lads distinguished 
each other by nicknames. Grant, partly from the impres- 
sion that his second name was Samuel, and partly from his 
general gravity, was known as "Uncle Sam" — a title which 
afterward adhered to him during all his service in the regu- 
lar army. Of the others, Deshon was "Dragon ;" Frank- 
lin, "Frank; 1 ' Gardner, "Gulger;" Ingalls, "Yankee;" 
Hamilton, "Ham;" Quinby, "Nykins;" Seidell, "Taps," 
or "Simon Tappity;" Steele, "Doctor," because he had 
studied medicine ; and Raynolds, "Dad," from premature 
gray hair. Two others, yet living, received the uncompli- 
mentary appellations, "Bullhead," and "Jeremy Diddler." 

At the end of his second year, the student receives a fur- 
lough of sixty days for visiting his friends. It is the only 
one during his entire term, unless in case of extreme sick- 
ness, or some other emergency. In June, 1841, Grant im- 
proved his by returning to Bethel, Ohio, ten miles west of 
Georgetown, where the family now lived. He had left 
Georgetown a round-shouldered lad. Now, after the first 
greeting, his mother exclaimed : — 

"Ulysses, you have grown much straighter." 

"Yes, that was the first thing they taught me," he re- 
plied. Still the effect of the teaching was not permanent. 

He spent the weeks of his furlough in visiting old friends, 
and riding out with the girls ; for nature will assert herself, 
and the young man seemed to have outgrown his indifference 



92 "Leave it to Uncle Sam." t 1841 - 

to the other sex. He had also greatly improved in man- 
ners, overcome his bashfulness, and gained self-poise. For 
a time, in accordance with an agreement between himself 
and classmates to abstain from liquor for a year, he steadily 
refused to drink with his old friends. The object of the 
cadets was to strengthen by their example one of their 
number who was falling into bad habits. 

In due season he returned to his studies. He had es- 
tablished his reputation as one who accomplished much 
easily, and who, though not fond of study, learned every 
thing thoroughly. His acquaintances were few, but he had 
a small circle of attached friends, among whom were In- 
galls, now Quartermaster- General of the army ; Franklin, 
Steele, Augur, Deshon, and Quinby. His comrades all 
respected his clear judgment and fairness, and, when dis- 
putes arose among them, would say : — 
"Let's leave it to Uncle Sam." 

And he witched his little world with noble horseman- 
ship. There was nothing he could not ride. He command- 
ed, sat, and jumped a horse with singular ease and grace ; 
was seen to the best advantage when mounted and at a full 
gallop ; could perform more feats than any other member 
of his class, and was, altogether, one of the very best riders 
West Point had ever known. 

The noted horse of that whole region was a powerful, long- 
legged sorrel, known as ' ' York. ' ' Grant and his classmate, 
Couts, were the only cadets who rode him at all, and Couts 
could not approach Grant. It was his delight to jump York 
over the fifth bar, about five feet from the ground, and the 
best leap ever made at West Point — something more than 
six feet — is still marked there as "Grant's upon York." 
York's way was to approach the bar at a gentle gallop, 
crouch like a cat, and fly over with rarest grace. One would 
see his fore feet high in the air, his heels rising as his fore 
feet fell, then all four falling lightly together. It needed a 
firm seat, a steady hand, and a quick eye to keep upon the 
back of that flying steed. One day when Grant had just 
taken his favorite leap Hamilton said to him : — 
" Sam, that horse will kill you some day." 



1843.] "I Can't Die but Once." 93 

" Well," lie replied characteristically, " I can't die "but 



once." 



The class, like all at the Academy, was about equally 
divided between Southerners and Northerners, or rather be- 
tween plain and pretentious students. Among the last, 
Southerners took the lead in every thing ; were confident in 
manners, showy in dress, and courted the society of ladies, 
for during the summer season, there are frequent cotil- 
lion parties in the long roomy hall, attended by the families 
of West Point and guests from everywhere. There was no 
intimacy between these two sets. They were seldom in each 
others' rooms, except on business. The only literary society, 
the " Dialectic," was in the hands of Southerners. It 
was difficult for the plain pupils to become members, so 
they asked permission to form another society, but it 
was denied. Grant, of course, was in the unfashionable 
set, as were most members of the class who have since be- 
come eminent, Deshon was held the most shining mem- 
ber. He remained in the army only a few years, and is now 
a Roman Catholic priest in New York. The class was held 
less brilliant than any which had preceded it since the found- 
ing of the Academy. When it graduated, not a single mem- 
ber was held good enough in mathematics to be recom- 
mended for the engineers, and only one for the topographi- 
cal engineers. 

But, eighteen years later, only three of the class went into 
the Rebel service— Roswell S. Ripley, originally a New 
Yorker, but married to a Southern lady ; Samuel G. FrenHu 
from New Jersey, who also married in the South, and Frank- 
lin Gardner, appointed from Iowa, but residing in Washing- 
ton when the war broke out. The two first did not rise above 
the rank of brigadier-general. Gardner, a major-general, 
was captured witli his command at Port Hudson, through 
the reduction of Vicksburg by Grant in 1863. 

Grant' s class, that of 1843, was of course associated with 
seven others first and last. In those below it were George 
B. McClellan, Kirby Smith, and Stonewall Jackson, the lat- 
ter reputed only a fair scholar. The class of 1842, the first 
above, was very large, and esteemed by the faculty the 



94 Graduates and Returns Home. [i843. 

ablest tliat had ever graduated. Several members became 
more or less famous in our day — Newton, Rosecrans, Pope, 
Doubleday, Sykes, and Setli Williams on the Union side ; 
and Longstreet, D. H. Hill, Mansfield Lovell, and Earl 
Van Dorn in serving the Rebel cause. 

In the class of 1841, were Buell — adjutant of the corps 
and a martinet of great reserve and dignity ; Rodman, in- 
ventor of the Rodman gun ; Patrick Calhoun, son of John C. 
Calhoun, who died from excessive drinking ; J. F. Reynolds, 
killed at Gettysburg ; Nathaniel Lyon, Alfred Sully, and 
Israel B. Richardson, who fell at Antietam. 

In the class of 1840, were Ewell, William Tecumseh Sher- 
man, and George H. Thomas. 

On the thirtieth of June, 1843, Grant graduated, the 
twenty-first on a list of thirty-nine classmates — all that 
were left of more than a hundred who entered the Academy 
with him. The rest had been weeded out from year to 
year. Robert E. Lee graduated fourteen years earlier, 
when Grant was a stripling of seven ; Bragg and Pember- 
ton six years earlier, Beauregard five, and Halleck four. 
Buckner came one year later, McClellan three, Burnside 
four, Warren seven, McPherson and Sheridan ten, and 
Howard eleven. 

Leaving the Academy, Grant went as far as Philadelphia 
with his classmate, Frederick T. Dent of St. Louis, thence 
to Washington, and thence to his home in Ohio. At the 
final examination, his chief achievement was with his fa- 
vorite horse York. In presence of the board of visitors he 
made the famous leap of six feet and two or three inches. 

His career at West Point had been altogether unno- 
ticeable. His scholastic standing was about the average. 
His reputation for integrity and fairness was high, and his 
observance of the truth so strict that he never indulged in 
the slightest exaggeration. But neither classmates nor pro- 
fessors fancied that he was born great, or going to achieve 
greatness, or likely to have greatness thrust upon him. 



1843.] Lieut. Grant at Jefeeeson Baeeacks. do 



CHAPTER VII. 

MEXICAN AVAR— WITH TAYLOR. 

In 1843 the army of the United States numbered only 
seven thousand five hundred men, and West Point sent out 
officers for it much faster than they were needed. The 
custom Avas to commission graduates as second lieutenants 
by brevet, and many became gray-headed men before they 
reached the rank of captain. 

Grant AA-as accordingly appointed brevet second lieu- 
tenant in the Fourth Infantry. The usual ninety days' fur- 
lough after graduating he spent at his Ohio home, and 
then joined his regiment at Jefferson Barracks, near St. 
Louis. 

The young soldier, with little work and much leisure, 
found recreation in the society of the neighboring city. 
Four miles AA^est of the barracks also lived Colonel Frederick 
Dent,* the father of one of Grant's classmates. In 1815, 
when a young man, he had settled in Missouri, and bought 
eleven hundred arpents of land (eighty-five-hundredths 
of an acre making an arpent), ten miles soutliwest of St. 
Louis, on Gravois Creek. This place he called White- 
haven, in memory of his old home in Maryland, granted 
to his ancestors by King Charles. The new Whitehaven 
was in a pleasant region, looking out upon AA^ooded hills 
and grassy valleys ; and to its Southern hospitality, made 
easy by the unpaid labor of thirty slaves, Grant soon be- 
came a welcome guest. 

Not solely or chiefly to see his old classmate did he 
frequent the place. There was metal more attractive. Julia 

* Now eighty-one years of age, and still living in General Grant's family at 
Washington. 



96 Where nE Falls in Love. [1844. 

Dent, three or four years Iris junior, was the fifth child, 
hut eldest daughter, of the house. Reared among slaves 
— " Black Julia," a girl exactly her own age, being her per- 
sonal servant — she had inherited and acquired some of 
the local traits and habits of thought always perceptible 
in ladies of Southern education ; but she had a sprightly 
mind, and a most sterling, lovable character — was amiable 
in disposition, comely in person, well-bred and attractive 
in manners. The logical result followed. Poet might have 
sung to the soberest old oak, that shaded the hospitable 
Whitehaven porch : — 

" Beneath thy boughs at fall of dew, 
By lover lips is softly told 
The tale, that all the ages through, 

Has kept the world from growing old!" 

The lieutenant and the lady plighted their troth. But the 
family looked askance upon a match for the favorite 
daughter with a young itinerant, who had no fortune but 
a subaltern's pay, gave little promise of eminence in his 
profession, and from whom his wife must endure long sepa- 
rations. So the young couple could only promise to wait 
patiently, and to love each other all the more. 

The country, meanwhile, was on the eve of war. Several 
years earlier, a few hundred Americans had settled in 
Texas, an outlying province of Mexico. They were chiefly 
Southerners, and an unparalleled proportion were patriots, 
who had "left their country for their country's good." 
But even American desperadoes believe in self-government, 
so Texas asked admission as a State to the Mexican Confed- 
eration. She was refused, with the additional indignity of 
having her commissioners imprisoned. 

The President of Mexico was Santa Anna, who had 
already seen many ups and downs of fortune — to-day exiled 
or in prison, to-morrow chief ruler of the fickle republic. 
Sam Houston, the central figure in Texas, had had a still 
more checkered career. His truthful memoir would read 
like the bloodiest of dime novels. While yet in his teens he 
had been a boy-soldier against the Indians ; then a volun- 



1336.] Origin of the Mexican War. 97 

taiy resident among them for years, adopting their habits, 
and leading them by his strong will ; next a representative 
in Congress, and then Governor of Tennessee. The latter 
office he suddenly resigned three months after his marriage, 
and, from sonic unknown cause, left his young wife, aban- 
doned civilization, lived again for years among the Chero- 
kees, was engaged in many battles, and finally settled in 
Texas, to appear again in the whirlpool of politics. 

In 1835, Santa Anna marched into Texas at the head of 
an army to subdue the refractory province. War followed, 
with various fortune, for nearly a year. Two bodies of 
unarmed Texan prisoners, one hundred and eighty-five at 
the Alamo, and three hundred and fifty-seven at Goliad, 
were murdered by the Mexicans. These deeds of blood 
gave a battle-cry to the Texans. On the San Jacinto, eight 
hundred men led by Houston, attacked a fortified camp 
of sixteen hundred Mexicans under Santa Anna, shout- 
ing : — " Remember the Alamo ! Remember Goliad !" 

They stormed the breastworks, and, with a loss of only 
thirty-three in all, killed, wounded, or captured almost 
every Mexican, slaughtering many after the fort was taken. 
Houston, with the greatest difficulty, saved the life of Santa 
Anna himself, who was made a prisoner. 

Mexico was soon ready to acknowledge the independence 
of Texas. But the question of boundary presented a new 
difficulty, Texas claiming west to the Rio Grande, and 
Mexico demanding that the border should be the Nueces 
River, three hundred miles farther east. Though the inter- 
vening country is made up of barren sand deserts, Mexico 
and Texas fought about it for 3-ears, the Texans receiving- 
warm sympathy and support from our Southern and West- 
ern States, as the victims of the Alamo and Goliad were 
from along the Mississippi and the Ohio. Even the two 
brass field-pieces, which helped Houston to win the battle 
of San Jacinto, were a gift from citizens of Cincinnati. 

Our Southern politicians, too, began to clamor in the 
name of freedom for the rich and virgin soil of the fair 
province — that they might cover it with slaves. Thus en- 
couraged, in 1837 Texas proposed annexation to the United 

G 



98 How Annexation was Received. [i845. 

States. President Van Buren opposed her request as conflict- 
ing with, our well-defined national policy, and as likely to 
involve us in a war with Mexico. The protection of Great 
Britain and France was sought for by the revolted prov- 
ince, which thus invoked the potent influence of opposition 
to foreign interference on the American continent. 

The death of President Harrison, and the treachery of 
Vice-President Tyler to the party electing him, proved more 
friendly to the Texans. In 1844, Tyler, as President, and 
John C. Calhoun, as Secretary of State, signed a treaty of 
annexation ; but the Senate rejected it, so the question was 
referred to the grand jury of the nation. In vain did 
Webster and other prominent statesmen, supported by the 
entire Whig party and many Northern Democrats, oppose 
the projected addition to our territory, on the grounds of 
safe policy and sound political morality. The national 
lust for territorial expansion was irresistible. Van Buren 
opposed the measure, and so lost the Democratic nomina- 
tion for the Presidency. Henry Clay, the Whig candidate, 
opposed it, and was defeated by James K. Polk, the Demo- 
cratic nominee. So Texas was admitted in December, 
1845. 

The South regarded the result as a great victory for the 
Slave-Power. At the North a fresh impulse was given to 
the growing Abolition sentiment, both by the annexation 
and by a provision in the Texas Constitution, which autho- 
rized dividing her into five Slave States at some future day. 
As an index of the intensity of this feeling, I remember a 
mother, not more interested in public affairs than many 
New England mothers, who, when news of the annexation 
came, as she sat at her family breakfast-table, burst into 
tears at such an appalling pro- Slavery triumph. 

It was so well understood that annexation might involve 
war with Mexico, that American troops were concentrated 
at Fort Jess up, on Bed Biver, near the eastern border of 
Texas, more than a year before the admission of the new 
State. Brevet Brigadier- General Zachary Taylor, distin- 
guished in the war of 1812, and in Indian contests, was 
sent to take command of this "Army of Observation." 



1845.] Lieut. Grant and his Jovial Colonel. 99 

Early in May, 1844, Lieutenant Grant obtained leave of 
absence for a visit to his Ohio home. Before the steamer 
conveying him was out of sight, his regiment, at Jefferson 
Barracks, received orders to start for Red River. There 
was no telegraph in those days, and Grant went on to 
Bethel, but the stage which bore him also carried an order 
in the mail for him to rejoin his regiment ; so he remained 
at home but one or two days, and then returned. 

He had barely time to bid adieu to his betrothed. Her 
family, quite willing that the prospective war should rid 
them of the young lieutenant, were not sorry to have him 
called away. But youth and maiden, blest with that rich 
inheritance of hope bequeathed by every generation of 
true lovers, parted with full faith in a radiant future. 

It was the second week in May when the regiment em- 
barked for New Orleans. In five days it reached Grand 
Ecore, on Red River, a cantonment four miles from the 
old town of Natchitoches, Louisiana, and so healthy that 
the officers named it "Camp Salubrity." 

Our young brevet lieutenant varied his idle life by fre- 
quent visits to the ancient city, and to Fort Jessup, twenty- 
five miles in the interior, where most of the troops were 
encamped, and where horse races, "gander pullings," and 
the other amusements of that region were frequent. 

Here the regiment was stationed for a year. But in 
June, 1845, in anticipation of annexation, Taylor was 
ordered to the western frontier of Texas, "to protect her 
from foreign invasion and Indian incursions." Choosing 
New Orleans as the port of embarkation, he rendezvoused 
his troops four miles below that city, near the old Jackson 
battle-ground. The Fourth were in barracks, and not- 
withstanding the heat and some yellow fever, the young 
officers delighted to frequent the city. 

Their regimental commander had a weakness for the 
bottle. Sometimes, on his visits to town, he fell into the 
hands of the police, and was reprimanded or fined by the 
courts. On one of these occasions, Grant went in search of 
his peccant colonel, took a seat beside him in the court- 
room, and the two waited for his case of " drunkenness and 



100 Stationed at Corpus Chmsti, Texas. L 1845 - 

disorderly conduct" to Tbe called. Before it was reached, 
they heard the tramp of approaching soldiers in the street, 
and a moment after, in a familiar voice, the words : — 

' ' Halt ! Ground arms !" 

It was a squad of Grant' s own company. The lieuten- 
ant instantly stepped out and asked : — 

" What does this mean, corporal V ' 

"Well, lieutenant," replied that zealous subordinate, 
"we heard that the colonel had got into an ugly scrape 
with those rascally police, so I have brought up the squad 
to prove an alibi!" 

The corporal, altogether serious, was sent back to the 
barracks with his squad, but without any very severe 
reprimand ; and even the mortification of the crestfallen 
colonel was mitigated by this misdirected loyalty. 

In August, 1845, the regiment left New Orleans by 
steamer. With the rest of the army it encamped at Corpus 
Christ!, Texas, an old ranch, supported mainly by con- 
traband traffic, for then, as now, the Mexicans could not 
guard their long frontier against smugglers. Horses, mules, 
blankets, and silver were brought to Corpus Christi and 
exchanged for "notions," cloth, and tobacco. With true 
border lawlessness, Colonel Kinney, keeper of the ranch, 
used to buy off with gold pieces the Mexican soldiers who 
came to suppress his trade, and fight off the Comanches, 
who came to steal his goods. 

Twenty adobe houses about the ranch constituted 
Corpus Christi. Here the army remained until the follow- 
ing spring. It was encamped on a green slope covered with 
mesquite shrubs and evergreen oaks, extending down to the 
beach and along the water's edge for more than a mile. 
Taylor's head-quarters were beside the beach, only a few 
yards from Grant' s regiment. 

The vicinity of the camp afforded excellent fishing. 
Hunting cleer, and occasionally panthers, shooting turkeys, 
ducks, and snipe, gave the officers additional amusement. 
A few miles from the coast thousands of deer roamed in 
herds, but they were too wary to come within range of the 
chaparral. Mexicans hunted them with a stalking-horse — 




BREVET SECOND LIEUTENANT GRANT. 



184G -] How Tayloe obtained Mules. 101 

the dried skin of the head, neck, and part of the body of a 
horse, which they pushed before them as they crawled on 
their breasts until within rifle-shot of the grazing host. 

Herds of wild mustangs also abounded. One day Tay- 
lor, finding his transportation short twenty-five mules, after 
swearing with his usual vehemence at the inefficiency of 
the quartermasters, collected in front of his tent all the 
Mexican traders and visitors in camp, and told them he 
would give a fair price for fifty wild horses. Several 
instantly started for the plains a hundred miles away, built 
a corral with funnel entrance, drove in the wild little 
beasts, and in ten days returned with the required num- 
ber. Twenty-five were soon lassoed and broken to har- 
ness, the rest sold to officers at from five to twenty dollars 
apiece. Pony races at once became a popular amuse- 
ment. 

On the first of October, Grant received an appointment 
as a full second lieutenant in the Seventh Infantry, but he 
had become so attached to the Fourth, which had existed 
for more than fifty years, and Avon a distinguished record, 
that he asked permission to remain with it. The Washing- 
ton authorities acceded to his request, and in December 
came his commission as full second lieutenant in the Fourth. 
The regiment was commanded by Colonel Whistler, who 
had been in the service for forty years — longer than any 
other officer except Scott, 

Two of Grant's brother lieutenants were killed b}^ a 
steamer explosion, and buried just after sunset on the 
beautiful bluff back of the camp at Corpus Christi. By the 
light of a single lamp, the church service was read over 
their graves, three volleys were fired, and the escort wheeled 
into line and marched away to fife and drum. 

A theater, holding eight hundred persons, was finished 
in January, and a clever company whiled away many win- 
ter nights. The scenery was painted by amateurs among 
the officers. Corpus Christi had already become a village 
of one thousand civilians, chiefly camp followers. Many 
of the houses were permanent, though some were covered 
only with cotton cloth. 



102 The Army Marches eok Mexico, [i846. 

The annexation of Texas was simply an act of aggression 
on the part of a strong power against a weak one. JSTo pro- 
vision had "been made for increasing the army of the United 
States, which was smaller than it had been for forty years. 
Both Congress and President Polk fancied that a little show 
of force would awe Mexico into submitting without resist- 
ance. The Government of Mexico was craven, but her peo- 
ple, always patriotic in spite of their ignorance, were eager 
to fight for the integrity of her territory. President Polk 
feared to take the responsibility of a war, and hints were 
given Taylor to invade Mexico without orders. But " Old 
Rough and Ready," as his soldiers called him, was a Whig, 
and not inclined to walk into such a trap. 

Finally, he was imperatively instructed to advance ; and 
on the eleventh of March, 1846, Whistler' s brigade, to which 
Grant was attached, started for the Rio Grande. A battery 
which accompanied was commanded by Captain Braxton 
Bragg, destined, years later, to come to grief as a Rebel gen- 
eral at the hands of Lieutenant Grant. The army on the 
march formed a picturesque caravan. The undress uniform 
was then light blue, like our present cavalry pantaloons, 
not dark blue like our blouses. The regular uniform was a 
heavy frock coat, and a "stove-pipe" felt hat. Most pic- 
tures of battles in the Mexican war represent our soldiers 
as appareled in this comfortless coat and preposterous hat, 
but in the field and on marches they really wore light jack- 
ets and little fiat caps or straw hats. 

The long procession of blue, relieved by snow-white 
baggage- wagons and thousands of gleaming bayonets, 
marched over vast stretches of barren sand hills, where 
countless herds of dappled mustangs and spotted antelopes 
grazed, and gorgeous flowers of yellow, scarlet, and purple 
somehow found sustenance in the unpromising soil. Against 
the clear sky a magnificent mirage painted purple moun- 
tains, cool lakes, and green groves which at first it was 
difficult to believe unreal. Men and horses were frequently 
bitten by rattlesnakes, but seldom with fatal results. 

On the fourteenth day from Corpus Christi, the soldiers 
left the desert, where they had traveled without seeing a 



1846.] And Encamps opposite Matamobas. 103 

human habitation, and entered picturesque settlements on 
the east bank of the Rio Grande, among lovely wheat fields, 
orchards, and vineyards, where rills for irrigation ran in 
threads of silver through every field and beside every door. 

At the mouth of the river, Taylor took possession of 
Point Isabel, which he made his depot of supplies, leaving a 
small force to guard it. The army marched twenty-seven 
miles farther up stream, and encamped beside the Rio 
Grande, here one hundred and twenty-five yards wide. 
Just across it rose the fair city of Matamoras, flags of the 
Mexican Republic flying, housetops covered with dusky 
faces, streets filled with native soldiery, and two hundred 
men and women upon the bank, gazing curiously at the 
new-comers. 

The army, which had marched one hundred and sixty 
miles from Corpus Christi, then encamped in a field of green 
corn within full range of the Matamoras guns. A month 
was spent in building a fortification. Many soldiers, chiefly 
English, Irish, and German, deserted to the Mexicans, but 
a number were shot while swimming the river. The slaves 
of our Southern officers also ran away by the dozen, to the 
infinite disgust of their " owners." 

Grant's regiment had nothing to do but to hunt wild 
boars, and go out occasionally to escort trains of supplies 
from Point Isabel. The colonel, by more than usual dissi- 
pation, tried the patience of his brusque commanding gen- 
eral beyond bearing, and Taylor said to him : — 

"You have my permission to resign." 

" It is impossible," replied the old officer, "I have spent 
all my property, and have no other means to live by. 
Military life is the only one I am acquainted with, and I 
am too old to learn any other." 

The colonel was court-martialed and dismissed the ser- 
vice, but, in view of his long services, afterward reinstated 
by President Polk. He remained in command of the Fourth 
till 1861, and died in 1863. 

The twenty-sixth of April brought wild excitement to 
the little camp. The first blood had been shed. Sixty-three 
dragoons, scouting under Captain Thornton, had been at- 



104 Grant Fights his First Battle, [1846. 

tacked, sixteen killed or wounded, and tlie rest captured. 
The desire of the Government was gratified ; war had begun, 
and the Mexicans had fired the first shot. 

On the first of May Taylor started for Point Isabel, 
which was threatened by the enemy. When the troops 
marched away, joy bells were rung in Matamoras, where it 
was believed that the Americans were leaving the country. 
But the Mexican officers knew what the movement meant. 
They had threatened Point Isabel, to induce the uncovering 
of the new fort our troops were building opposite Matamoras, 
and the moment our army left they attacked it. So on the 
seventh, Taylor, having fortified and re-enforced the Point, 
started back to relieve the fort. 

About noon the next day, his troops met the enemy on 
a prairie, three miles from Palo Alto (tall timber). The 
weather was intensely hot, and a halt was made of a couple 
of hours to park the wagons, and let the men lunch and 
drink from a cool, clear spring. As they started again, the 
Mexicans opened fire upon them, and a lively skirmish fol- 
lowed. Grant's regiment, on the extreme right, was in a 
hot place, supporting artillery, and pouring in a heavy fire. 
The Mexican lancers charged again and again with a good 
deal of gallantry, but were successfully repulsed. 

The long, dry grass of the prairie was fired by the burn- 
ing wads of the cannon, and great clouds of smoke presently 
hid the contending forces from each other. For half an 
hour, till the flames subsided, the action was suspended. 
Then, under cover of the smoke, the brigade in which were 
Grant's regiment and Ringgold's battery, made a detour, 
flanked the enemy on his left, and compelled him to change 
his line of battle— but not till Ringgold had been killed. 
Grant was with his company, which was commanded by 
Captain George A. McCall. Captain Page fell a few yards 
from him, his lower jaw shot away by a cannon-ball. Al- 
most simultaneously a ball took off a soldier' s head, scat- 
tering his brains and blood in the faces of his comrades. 
In another part of the field, Colonel Mcintosh, of the Fifth, 
riding through the chaparral, was attacked by several Mexi- 
cans, wounded by a bayonet thrust through his neck, en- 



1846.] AND THE NEXT DAY HIS SEC0XD. 105 

tering at the mouth and coming ont at the back. He was left 
for dead on the field, but recovered in a few days. 

At the same moment with the movement of the Fourth, 
another was made on our left, so that the Mexicans were 
almost surrounded. Their line "broke and fell back, and 
the ground was occupied by our troops. 

The fight, which lasted for five hours, was chiefly with 
artillery, though there was some skirmishing at close quar- 
ters. The American force was about two thousand three 
hundred men ; the Mexican much larger. Our loss was 
only fifteen in killed and mortally wounded. But it was the 
first encounter of the United States troops with a civilized 
enemy for thirty years, and Avas magnified accordingly. It 
was also Grant's first battle, and he was in the thickest 
of it. 

That night the troops slept on the field, undisturbed save 
by the groans of their wounded comrades and enemies in 
the hands of the surgeons. Chloroform — blessed alleviator 
of pain — had not yet come into use. 

In the morning they advanced again in line of battle, 
expecting an immediate encounter, but no enemy appeared. 
Feeling their way for two hours, they came upon the Mexi- 
cans posted at Eesaca de la Palma (grove of palms), a 
deep, densely wooded valley crossing the road three miles 
from the Rio Grande. Captain McCall, witli Grant and a 
hundred picked men, first encountered the enemy. There 
was a little skirmishing, and presently the two forces joined 
battle. It was in a thick chaparral, almost as dense as the 
woods at Shiloh, or the Wilderness. The artillery could do 
little good, but bayonets were crossed, and there was hot 
infantry fighting. The Fourth, though it had changed 
places, and was on our extreme left, chanced again to be in 
the sharpest of the fight. Taylor himself was under hot 
fire, and an officer proposed that he retire for safety. He 
replied : — 

" JSTo, we won't go back ; but let us ride a little forward, 
wliere the balls will fall behind usP 

After several futile attempts to charge, the Mexicans 
gave way in confusion. The Americans followed in hot 



10G War "upon our own Soil." [1846. 

pursuit, and, just beyond the ravine, came upon the enemy' s 
camp, where beeves killed, fires lighted, meals cooked, 
and the silver dinner-service of a Mexican general left ex- 
posed, showed that the foe had fancied his position im~ 
pregnable. 

"Without stopping to plunder, our troops pressed on, 
driving the fugitives pell-mell toward the river. Some were 
killed while retreating, some overtaken and captured, and 
many drowned in the rush at the Rio Grande. 

The American loss* was larger than on the previous day, 
but still insignificant. Lieutenant Cochrane, of Grant's 
regiment, was among the killed. Our forces captured eight 
pieces of artillery, two thousand stands of arms, three 
standards, and a great deal of camp equipage. The Mexi- 
cans showed, in these two battles, better fighting qualities 
than at any subsequent period of the war ; but they lost 
forever all that vast region east of the Rio Grande, which 
their republic had hitherto ruled. The campaign, on soil 
which our Government even claimed, was ended, and the 
army, which had been first one of " Observation" and then 
of "Occupation," now became "the Army of Invasion." 

Taylor reached the river bank opposite Matamoras, in 
time to relieve the new fort. It had been under bombard- 
ment for six days, but though containing two artillery 
companies, a detachment of infantry, and all the women 
attached to the camp, only two persons were killed, and 
but ten wounded. Major Jacob Brown, of the Tenth in- 
fantry, who commanded the post, was one of the killed. 
The unfinished work was consequently named " Fort 
Brown." Brownsville, Texas, on the same spot, still com- 
memorates him. 

Intelligence of hostilities actually created wonder at 
Washington. Capt. Thornton's party had been attacked 
on soil to which Mexico had certainly more claim than 
Texas ; but when the news reached President Polk, he de- 
clared, in an extraordinary message, that the Mexican 
Government had invaded our territory, and shot several of 
our fellow-citizens "upon our own soil." Congress re- 

* Killed and mortally wounded, forty-four. 



1846.] Scott's " Fire in the Reab." 107 

sponded by resolutions of similar purport, and "by author- 
izing the President to call out fifty thousand volunteers. 

General Scott, the ranking officer of the army, was placed 
in charge, and requested to proceed to Mexico. But he was 
a Whig, and Democrats were intriguing for the appoint- 
ment of a junior or political general over his head. So, in 
a note to Marcy, the Secretary of War, lie wrote :— 

" I do not desire to place myself in that most perilous of positions — a 
Jire in the rear from Washington, and a fire in my front from the Mexicans. 1 ' 

The italicized expression was made the theme of merci- 
less ridicule by Democratic newspapers, and for a while it 
kept Scott in disgrace with the administration. 

Nine days after the battle of Resaca, Taylor crossed the 
Rio Grande and entered Matamoras, which the Mexicans had 
evacuated, a pleasant old Mexican city of stone and adobe 
houses, surrounding a noble plaza shaded with beautiful 
trees. Among other public property, an immense quantity 
of cigars and tobacco was found, which Taylor distributed 
among his troops, to their supreme satisfaction. 

The hospitals, in a horrid condition, were filled with 
Mexican soldiers from the recent battles, their wives or 
daughters sitting beside their couches to keep off the 
abounding flies. Most of the people were filthy and 
covered with vermin, but some women were attractive, and 
evinced the usual native predilection for Americans. All 
day would they sit on the cool brick floors of their 
houses, with their rich hair neatly dressed, but wearing no 
clothing except a single robe. They were always ready to 
converse through their lattices, and at evening, above the 
city, large numbers bathed publicly in the river. 

There was a strong desire to conciliate the Mexicans ; so 
plundering was not only forbidden, but actually prevented. 
Buildings occupied by quartermasters and commissaries 
were also regularly hired and paid for. 

The army was only four or live thousand strong. All 
the regular officers knew each other ; for with nothing to do 
but drill there was abundant leisure. Soldiers mingled 
with the natives, learning to speak Spanish, and spending a 



108 Pillow's Ditch axd Breastwork. D346. 

good deal of time at fandangoes. The men occupied A 
tents, the officers, wall tents. Grant' s regiment was camped 
on the river bank, where malignant fever prevailed. His 
own company suffered much, and two others were quite 
"broken up. 

Early in August the command marched for Camargo. 
The heat was so intense that the soldiers could not travel in 
mid-day, so they started at midnight, and went into camp 
by nine in the morning. Along the road they purchased 
abundant supplies of apples, pears, pomegranates, quinces, 
and grapes, and passed pleasant ranches, with great herds 
of goats and cattle near them. 

After marching one hundred and twenty- seven miles in 
eight days, they reached Camargo, one hundred and eighty 
miles above the mouth of the Rio Grande, an isolated old 
settlement with a grand plaza, spacious cathedral, and lime- 
stone houses with flat roofs. Here Taylor established his 
base of supplies and concentrated his growing army, while 
volunteers, wagons, horses, and provisions were constantly 
arriving from the United States. 

Temporary fortifications were thrown up. Gideon J. 
Pillow, civilian major-general from Tennessee, dug his ditch 
on the wrong side of his breastwork, and gained thereby 
the ludicrous notoriety, which has never deserted him. 
Here Grant was made acting assistant quartermaster, and 
placed in charge of the property of his regiment — a much 
more active and responsible position than that of a second 
lieutenant in the line, and one which requires excellent 
business capacity. 

Before the end of August Taylor started for Monterey 
with six thousand effectives, half of whom were volunteers. 
Transportation was scarce, and many officers bought pack 
mules for their personal comforts. On the march the soldiers 
attended fandangoes almost every night ; for the Mexicans, 
though ready enough to fight on the field, were equally 
ready to dance with the invaders of their country. 

Monterey, with seventeen thousand people, is the most 
important city of northern Mexico. It is built of limestone, 
the streets paved and clean, and fringed with beautiful gar- 



1846.] The Battle of Monterey. 109 

dens, orchards, and vineyards. The town is two or three 
miles long, and its natural position very strong. When 
our army approached, it was well fortified, and held by ten 
thousand Mexican troops. 

After ten days of reconnoitering, Taylor attacked it on 
the twenty-first of September. Grant's regiment was in 
Garland's brigade of regulars, on the extreme left of our 
line. The troops assaulted the city vigorously, and were 
vigorously opposed from forts, intrenched streets, and barri- 
caded houses. One detachment reached the roof of a house 
near a Mexican redoubt, but was driven out. Two com- 
panies of the Fourth advanced to storm a fortification, and 
had a severe tight, in which Grant's friends and messmates, 
Hoskins and Wood, both fell mortally wounded while 
cheering on their men. More than one-third of the com- 
mand was disabled, and it was finally driven back. Another 
party of the Fourth had a lively fight in the streets — load- 
ing behind buildings, stepping out to fire, and then hiding 
again. Once they lay upon the ground under a hot fire 
for half an hour, watching the shells which flew over them 
from Worth's command on the other side of the town. Be- 
fore night they had lost very heavily. 

It was said that during this fight the daughter of a 
former Mexican governor, her whole soul aroused at the 
invasion of her native soil, led a company of lancers in three 
successful charges. After the battle, the native Joan of Arc 
retired from the army and the town, and was seen no more. 

During the day, a private of the Third Infantry, mor- 
tally wounded, said to a passing sergeant : — 

" I am dying. I wish you would take this musket back 
to my captain. I have had it ever since I enlisted, and / 
leant to leave it to the old regiment" 

Another, struck in the thigh by a bullet, exclaimed : — 
"I have got my ticket," and limped gayly off to camp 
on his uninjured leg. In similar phrase, during the Rebel- 
lion, would our soldiers sometimes say of a dead comrade, 
"He has handed in his checks." 

In the rear, Worth' s division had carried several impor- 
tant points, but the attack in front was a failure. Our 



110 Three Days of Hard Fighting. [i84s. 

forces were driven back, but held one important redoubt 
which they had gained. The Fourth remained to guard this, 
the men lying in the mud and rain through the cold night, 
though they had eaten nothing for twenty-four hours 

Just at dawn, the next morning, Worth's men stormed 
and captured, at the point of the bayonet, a height com- 
manding the Citadel and the Bishop' s Palace, and thus got 
the key of the city. The Mexican general then concentra- 
ted his troops in the streets, which so changed positions 
that there was little fighting during the day. The shat- 
tered Fourth was relieved by volunteers, and sent back to 
camp. 

On the third and last day there was hard fighting from 
morning until night. Hand to hand and face to face, the 
Mexicans defended their homes with great obstinacy, from 
house-tops and narrow streets and around the grand plaza. 
Our artillerists sent grape and canister plowing through 
the town, and, in return, musket-balls rattled about them 
like hickory-nuts. As Taylor was standing recklessly in a 
very hot place, a lieutenant begged him not to expose him- 
self so much. His only reply was : — 

" Take this ax, and knock down that door." 

Everywhere our men were breaking into buildings, 
while terrified Avomen and children fell on their knees and 
begged for mercy. But the troops were well disciplined, 
and behaved admirably, while digging their way persist- 
ently from house to house. 

Toward night, as very hard fighting was going on 
near the plaza, it was suddenly discovered that the detach- 
ment engaged was almost out of ammunition. The men 
were under a hot fire, and could not hold their ground for a 
moment without cartridges. Taylor' s headquarters were a 
mile back, outside of the town, at "Fort Number One," a 
captured redoubt. Grant, who had been with his regiment 
from the firing of the first musket, volunteered to go and 
find him or Twiggs, and order up ammunition. 

He prepared for his ride behind a house, and then dashed 
out. The moment he emerged from cover he was under a 
sweeping artillery and musketry fire from forts and houses. 



\f> I fell!' r 

lllfe II 
1 



, feiMfe KJOm 




184G] Grant Kuns a Gantlet of Death. Ill 

But lie was probably the best horseman in the army, a 1 . id 
his skill did him good service. Before running the hot 
gantlet, he had adoj)ted the posture of the Comanche In- 
dians in similar peril— lying against the side of his horse, 
with one foot thrown over the saddle and his hand clutched 
in the mane. Being on the opposite side from the enemy, 
any shots to harm him must first pass through the steed. 

His horse was well trained, and with Grant clinging to hi in 
in that awkward position, and ''bobbing" up and down 
with his motion, he started at a quick run. On the way he 
had to jump an earth wall nearly four feet high. He made 
the leap splendidly, and though balls whistled and shells 
exploded all around him, Grant had the good fortune to 
reach the fort safely. He found Twiggs who gave the order 
to forward the ammunition, but before it could start our 
troops came pouring back. With great, but fruitless, gal- 
lantry they had got into a place in which they could not 
stay. As Grant himself afterward described it, the}' were 
like the man who caught a wild boar. When friends came 
up with congratulations, he replied :— 

" Yes, I did pretty well in catching him, but now I Avish 
somebody would come and help me let him go !" 

That night ended the fighting. The Fourth had lost five 
officers and many men. Grant's duties as quartermaster of 
course excused him from going into battle, but he was not 
the man to avail himself of any such privilege. His 
gallantry and skill in riding for the ammunition were the 
theme of general admiration throughout the army. 

Adjutant Hoskins being killed, Grant Avas now made 
adjutant of the Fourth, and afterward performed the duties 
of that position in addition to those of quartermaster. 

The white flag was raised and commissioners appointed 
— Jefferson Davis, colonel of the First Mississippi Eifles be- 
ing one — to arrange terms of capitulation. The Mexicans 
were allowed to retain their small-arms, accouterments, and 
one battery, but they were to retire within seven days. An 
armistice was agreed to for eight weeks, or until either 
Government should order it to cease. 

The American loss was one hundred and twenty killed 



112 "Green" rendered into Spanish. E 1846 - 

and three hundred and sixty-eight wounded, chiefly from 
ill-advised attacks upon strong positions during the first 
day. 

Our troops found Monterey a pleasant city. It had a 
great cathedral with the usual chime of Dells and lurid 
paintings, but just then filled with Mexican ammunition. 

Some weeks earlier the Mexican general commanding 
had issued a proclamation advising our men to desert. He 
afterward asked an American prisoner if our soldiers 
had not been tempted to do so. The captive replied : — 

"Oh, no, they were not so green as that." 

This was too much for the Mexican's English ; so an 
American interpreter was called to render "green" into 
Spanish. He gave it thus : — 

"The soldier says they were not such d — d fools !" 

On the day after the battle, Grant encountered an old 
Georgetown friend and playmate, now captain in the Ohio 
volunteers, with whom he exchanged confidences. The 
friend related that he was soon to be married ; and Grant 
confided to him his own engagement, and that his prospect- 
ive father-in-law, Colonel Dent, had fallen into pecuniary 
difficulties, the result of a lawsuit of twenty years. On this 
account Julia had offered to release him, but, of course, 
lie should accept no such freedom. As young men are 
wont, the two friends promised to name their boys for 
each other, and in pursuance of this agreement the first 
born of the Ohio captain, now a promising cadet at West 
Point, bears the name of Ulysses Grant White. 

Taylor, on receiving orders to resume hostilities, marched 
his army to Saltillo, west of Monterey, but he left Grant's 
regiment behind, and conveniently shelved Colonel Whistler 
■ — now back in the army, through the kindness of President 
Polk — by keeping him in command of the city. Here died 
of disease Grant' s early friend who secured his appointment 
to the Military Academy, Thomas L. Hamer, of Ohio. He 
was sincerely mourned by his own State, and by many 
political friends throughout the Union. 



1847.] TayloPw is Attacked at Buena Vista. 113 



CHAPTER VIII. 



M E XICAN AVAR WITH SCOTT. 



Ox tlie fourteenth of January, 1847, the regiment started 
for "Scott's line." From Camargo, it took steamer to the 
mouth of the Rio Grande, and from there to Vera Cruz. 
Only five thousand men were left with Taylor, so his cam- 
paign in northern Mexico was supposed to be ended. He 
w r as eminently a fighting man, Ibut he found his main ob- 
stacle that which has been the chief embarrassment of 
all army commanders, from the days when Julius Cresar 
in Gaul, was compelled so often to halt his army and gather 
supplies of corn. Taylor wrote to the Government : ' ' Fight- 
ing and whipping the enemy is among the least difficulties 
we encounter ; the great question of supplies necessarily 
controls all operations." 

Scott, on reaching the Rio Grande, dispatched to Taylor 
his plan of operations. But his courier was captured and 
killed, so his letter went straight to Santa Anna, who thus 
learned that Scott proposed to capture Vera Cruz and 
strike for the city of Mexico, and that he had already 
stripped Taylor of all his troops except live thousand, of 
whom less than one-tenth were regulars. 

Upon obtaining this valuable information, the Mexican 
chief determined to strike his enemies in detail. So in 
February, with nearly twenty thousand men, he marched 
upon Taylor, who had taken a very strong position in a 
mountain pass at Buena Vista, eleven miles from Saltillo. 
Santa Anna gave him one hour to consider a proposition for 
immediate surrender. Taylor would not accept the hour, 
but instantly refused. At dawn, next morning, the Mexi- 
cans pushed forward, and the fight soon grew desperate. 
Jefferson Davis, at the head of his Mississippi Rifles, was 
badly wounded, but remained on the field and greatly dis- 



ii 



Ill And Wins a Splendid Victory. [i847. 

tinguislied liimself. Some of tlie raw recruits broke badly, 
particularly an Indiana regiment. In the midst of the 
action, when the result seemed extremely doubtful, while 
Taylor was standing beside the battery of Braxton Bragg, 
the enemy suddenly poured down upon it. Instantly, by 
order of the chief, Bragg charged his guns with grape and 
poured it into the Mexicans, who were almost at the 
muzzles. While the assailants cowered under this terrible 
hail, Taylor was reported to have shouted : — 

" A little more grape, Captain Bragg." 

There was nothing particularly marked in the phrase, 
but who can tell what mysterious chord the most common- 
place words may strike if spoken at the right moment \ The 
order tickled the public ear, and went from mouth to 
mouth and newspaper to newspaper, as indicating the pluck 
and coolness of u Old Rough and Ready." 

Captain Bragg' s grape saved the day. On his front 
the enemy broke and fled, though elsewhere lighting con- 
tinued until dark. The Americans slept on their arms, 
expecting a renewal next morning, but when the sun rose 
Santa Anna had retired. The Americans lost nine hundred 
and forty- six in killed and wounded, almost one-fifth of the 
number engaged ; the Mexicans about two thousand. Tay- 
lor' s fight with his small force of raw recruits was the 
most gallant of the war, and made him its popular hero. 

During these campaigns, one force under Stephen Watts 
Kearny, with Colonel Sterling Price of Missouri and Major 
Edwin V. Sumner of the regular army as subordinates, 
captured Santa Fe, New Mexico. Another, under General 
Wool, made a long campaign through northern Mexico, 
and joined Taylor at Saltillo. Meanwhile, Lieutenant John 
C. Fremont, with a little surveying party, and without 
knowing that hostilities had begun east of the Rocky Moun- 
tains, raised the American flag in California, and, with none 
to molest or make him afraid, annexed that great province 
to our national possessions. 

Scott landed his force, twelve thousand strong, at Vera 
Cruz. Like that of Cortez, three hundred years before, it 
was a mere handful, in view of the numbers and resources 



1847.] " Generals Made Out of Any Thing.-' 115 

of the enemy. He planted lines five miles long around the 
the ancient city, and began the siege. Nearly all the fight- 
ing was with artillery. Here George B. McClellan, a lien- 
tenant of engineers, began his career. He was in charge of 
a working party in the trenches, while Captain C. F. Smith 
commanded the outpost guard on their front. Once as 
McClellan' s detachment was being relieved, Smith's line 
became involved in a sharp skirmish. McClellan did not 
go to his help, bnt marched off his command at a double 
quick, leaving Smith to take care of himself. 

Ordinarily Scott was not a favorite among his men, but 
his grievances at Washington excited their sympathy, and 
even stimulated him into something like wit. Once, as he 
was walking the trenches, the soldiers rose up and stared 
over the parapet at his towering form. He cried : — 

"DoAvn, down, men ; don't expose yourselves." 

" But, General," replied one, " you expose yourself," 

u 0h, well," answered Scott, "generals can be made out 
of any thing now-a-days, but men can't!" 

It was much in the strain of President Lincoln' s witti- 
cism in 1863. When friends condoled with him about the 
capture of a general at Fairfax Court-House, he replied : — 

' ' Oh, I can make a new brigadier any day, but all those 
horses that the Rebels got cost us a hundred and fifty 
dollars apiece." 

On the twenty-sixth of March, having bombarded Vera 
Cruz for five days, with the loss on our side of less than 
forty men, Scott was about to assault, when the place sur- 
rendered. Five thousand prisoners and five hundred pieces 
of artillery were captured. Our troops found the old city, 
established by the Spaniards nearly three hundred years 
ago, pleasantly built, with fiat-roofed houses of limestone 
three stories high, and streets clean and regular. 

An active offensive campaign was now prepared for. 
Congress had provided by law for the appointment of regi- 
mental quartermasters, and Grant was selected for that post 
by the colonel of the Fourth. The position brings some 
additional pay, and is usually offered, not to a brilliant, but 
to an energetic, painstaking officer. 



116 The Battle or Ceeeo Gordo. t 18 ^. 

Scott permitted no grass to grow under his feet. Ten 
days after the capitulation of Yera Cruz, his army, now only 
eight thousand strong, started for the heart of the Mexican 
republic. Three days later it reached the foot of snow-clad 
mountains. Santa Anna, who, after his bad luck with 
Taylor, had marched across the country to intercept Scott, 
held one of the first summits, known as Cerro Gordo [big 
hill], with fifteen thousand men and formidable batteries 
and intrenchments. 

The next few days were spent in reconnoitering and cut- 
ting a winding road around the base of the hill. Then 
Twiggs carried a part of it by storm ; and on the seven- 
teenth of April, Scott issued an order for the next day's 
battle, which proved one of the most remarkable mili- 
tary papers in history. With minute detail and prophetic 
accuracy, it gave the programme for the successive move- 
ments, telling the time when each work should be carried, 
and what must be done next. That preliminary order reads 
almost exactly like a report of the battle. 

That night Twiggs' s men dragged howitzers straight up 
the hill by hand. It was like climbing the roof of a house ; 
but before daylight they had their guns planted to command 
every thing except the crest itself. At dawn the Mexicans, 
astounded to find them there, opened a heavy fire with 
artillery. Right in the teeth of grape and canister, the 
troops, led by Harney, charged up the rough, almost per- 
pendicular hill-side, carried the enemy's first battery, drove 
him out in a hand-to-hand fight, followed straight up to the 
second breastwork, and there, after a fierce bayonet charge, 
the Mexican eagles came down, and the Stars and Stripes 
went up amid tremendous cheers. 

Harney had carried the key to the position, while Pillow 
was attacking on one side and Shields in the rear. There 
was no alternative, so the white flag was raised. Three 
thousand Mexicans surrendered, with forty-three pieces of 
artillery ; seven thousand escaped, including Santa Anna. 
His carriage and personal baggage fell into the hands of 
Scott, who returned them to him. 

The battle was extremely well contested, and, except 



1847 1 A Solitary Relic of the Aztecs. 117 

Buena Yista, the toughest of the war. Our loss was four 
hundred and thirty-one men, of whom sixty-three were 
killed. Grant was in the entire fight, but his regiment was 
not closely engaged, and its loss was slight. 

Scott pressed on impetuously, and on the fifteenth of 
May reached Puebla, ending a most brilliant campaign of 
sixty days, in which he had captured several vital points, 
ten thousand prisoners and seven hundred cannon. 

When his soldiers entered Puebla, many were suffering 
from sickness, and the rest were weary, dusty, foot-sore, 
and ragged. They piled their arms in the grand plaza and 
lay down to sleep in perfect security. Though in the heart 
of a hostile population, they felt that they were the ruling 
race. The natives felt it also, and even in their official dis- 
patches invariably mentioned the invaders as "Ameri- 
cans" — a title to which they have the same geographical 
claim as we, and a stronger genealogical one. 

Scott waited for nearly three months to rest and recruit 
his troops, who were greatly cut down by low fevers and 
dysentery, and also to see the result of pending negotiations 
for peace. Most of their road from Vera Cruz had been 
over barren mountains and plains, but at Puebla the desert 
ends, and the soldiers found themselves among picturesque 
vineyards and corn and wheat fields. 

Puebla de los Angeles (city of the angels), a town of 
eighty thousand inhabitants, stands seven thousand feet 
above the level of the sea, two hundred miles from Yera 
Cruz, and ninety from the City of Mexico. It is near the 
site of an old-time metropolis, in which Cortez found two 
hundred thousand people with four hundred Aztec temples. 
But all their monuments are obliterated, save one enormous 
pyramid standing solitary on a desolate plain. 

When Scott resumed his march for the capital, seeing the 
impossibility of preserving regular communication with Vera 
Cruz, he cut loose from his base, and determined to live on 
the country. His army, now increased to eleven thousand, 
started in the rainy season, but there were only two tents 
for each company, one for the sick and one for the arms. 
The men slept upon the ground, and were drenched nightly. 



US Grant's Regiment Seizes San Augustine. [i84T. 

On the ninth of August, Grant's regiment left Puebla, 
and, inarching out through the environs, saw the snowy 
summit of blue Popocatapetl, eighteen thousand feet above 
sea level, and, though thirty miles away, seeming in that 
clear atmosphere within a stone's throw. 

Ascending barren mountains, cooled with icy lakes, on 
the third day the men reached the highest summit on the 
National Road, eleven thousand feet above the sea. Just be- 
yond they looked down upon the grand basin of Mexico, with 
its steeples and domes, and its broad grassy bed glittering 
with lakes, like a mantle of velvet studded with stars. In the 
midst of this basin, high among the mountains, nestled the 
capital, with snow-white walls and shining temples. 

The city, exposed to inundation from mountain streams, 
is surrounded by dykes, and entered only by eight cause- 
ways, each commanded by a small fort. The army found 
the narrow one on the great National Road, which goes 
in from the east, quite impassable. But a reconnoitering 
party sent southward soon succeeded in finding an easier 
approach. By passing along the shores of Lakes Chalco 
and Xochimilco, and cutting a way across rocky mountain 
spurs, Scott reached the Acapulco road, which enters from 
the south, and which the Mexicans thought it impossible 
for him to gain. 

On the seventeenth of August, the army, Grant's regi- 
ment being in the advance, seized San Augustine, nine miles 
southwest of the city, after some skirmishing. 

Beyond, toward the capital, the road was commanded by 
heavy guns, both from held- works and an old stone church, 
which served as a fortress, at the crossing of the Churubusco 
River. Four miles west of this point was Contreras, a forti- 
fied hill. Both these works were strong and strongly gar- 
risoned. Midway between them, where he could re-enforce 
either, Santa Anna was stationed with his army. 

A day or two of cutting roads and reconnoitering fol- 
lowed. There were several skirmishes, in which the Mexican 
lancers, in yellow cloaks and white caps and jackets, and 
the Mexican infantry, who wore pretty white and blue 
uniforms, were easily repulsed. Finally, under cover of a 



1847.] Battles of Contreras and Chueubusco. 119 

cold, rainy night, our men were marched forward through 
chaparral and cactus to a new position. Tired and hungry, 
they slept on the ground until the rain flooded them, and 
then stood up until daylight. 

Soon after dawn, Contreras was stormed. Our eager 
troops rushed up the steep hill-side with a yell, sprang into 
the intrenchments, and, after seventeen minutes of hand-to- 
hand-fighting, secured the position. The Mexicans lost 
twenty-two pieces of artillery, one thousand seven hundred 
men killed and wounded, and eight hundred prisoners, of 
whom one-tenth were officers. Before eight o'clock the 
fighting here on our left was over. 

Meanwhile our right wing pressed forward, but met with 
severe resistance. Grant's regiment in Garland's brigade 
was with the advance, and had a hot skirmish in the little 
village of San Antonio. This was carried, and the column, 
re-enforced by the left wing, which came promptly up after 
taking Contreras, pushed straight forward on Churubusco. 
There it met with so stern a resistance that Scott, resorting 
to his usual tactics, sent strong forces around to the Mexi- 
can flank and rear. Just as these detachments attracted the 
enemy's attention, an irresistible charge was made on the 
front. Our men clambered into the embrasures and carried 
the formidable position by storm. They instantly turned all 
the captured guns upon the stone church, and this strong 
improvised fortress, after an obstinate fight, was also taken. 
Here Brigadier- General Franklin Pierce, of New Hampshire, 
injured two hours before at Contreras, by his horse falling 
under him, fainted with pain — a fact which, despite his gal- 
lant behavior, of course made him the subject of bound- 
less ridicule when he became a candidate for the Presi- 
dency. 

The Mexicans, harassed on the flanks by Pierce and 
Shields, fled precipitately toward the city, followed in hot 
chase over the long causeway by our dragoons. Captain 
Philip Kearny, who, though only thirty years old, had seen 
much of war, and in the French army had won the Cross of 
the Legion of Honor, pursued almost alone to the San Antonio 



120 The Attack on Molino del Eey. [184?. 

gate. There lie lost an arm, but his gallantry won him the 
deserved brevet rank of major.* 

The victory was complete. Scott lost upward of a 
thousand men in killed and wounded : the Mexicans far 
more, besides three thousand prisoners, thirty-seven pieces 
of artillery, and many small-arms. 

The next two weeks were occupied in unsuccessful nego- 
tiations for peace. Meanwhile Scott tried a large party of 
deserters from our army who had been captured while fight- 
ing in the enemy' s ranks. Twenty-nine were condemned and 
hanged. Their captain could not be legally executed as he 
had run away before the war actually began, so he was only 
lashed and branded. 

On Scott's front, the rock of Chepultepec, the seat of 
the Mexican military academy, and crowned by a strong, 
heavily armed castle, commanded the road to the city. At 
its base, behind a stone wall, Santa Anna had posted a 
heavy force, with its left wing resting on Molino del Key 
(the mill of the king). This was an old stone powder- 
mill, one story high and several hundred feet long, with 
a well-garrisoned tower at each end of its thick walls. 
The Mexican right wing rested on Casa de Mata, another 
massive stone building four hundred yards from the mill. 
The ground between was occupied by infantry and a iield- 
battery. 

When hostilities were resumed, Worth, with three thou- 
sand men, was ordered to take and destroy these strong de- 
fenses. After a heavy bombardment, on the morning of 
September eighth, he moved forward. The Fourth regiment 
was again with the advance, which captured the field-bat- 
tery and compelled the enemy to retire. But in a few min- 
utes the Mexicans rallied and drove our men back. Then 

* No American was ever more a soldier for the love of it than '•' Phil. Kearny." 
After the Mexican war, unable to endure the piping times of peace, he volunteered 
in Italy, and at Solferino won from Louis Napoleon a second decoration of the Legion 
of Honor. In our war for the Union he became a major-general, and won high fame 
by his impetuous gallantry. He had lost his left arm, Major-General 0. 0. Howard, 
of Maine, his right; and it was a common jest between the two that they would buy 
their gloves together, and thus make one pair answer for both. Kearny was 
deeply mourned by the whole North, when he fell at Chantilly, Virginia, in 1862. 



1847.] Lively Times foe Lieutenant Grant. 121 

the fight grew furious as the assailants again advanced and 
rushed up the hill in face of a tremendous fire. A large 
number fell at the first volley, among them eleven of the 
fourteen officers who led the assaulting column. But the 
brave fellows never faltered. Pouring over the breastworks, 
they forced the enemy's center, isolating his wings, and then 
charged on the mill itself. 

Grant had left his commissary wagons and was in the 
thick of the fight. While pursuing the Mexicans who were 
crowding into the mill for refuge, he saw Robert Anderson — 
afterward of Fort Sumter fame — fall, shot through the shoul- 
der. A moment after he almost stumbled over his friend 
Dent, who lay upon the ground bleeding from a wound in 
the thigh. As he stooped to assure himself that his comrade 
was neither dead nor dying, a Mexican rushed from behind 
the mill and presented his musket to finish Dent, but startled 
by Grant' s proximity and seeing Lieutenant Thorne stand- 
ing near, with back toward him, suddenly wheeled, and 
with bayonet almost touching that unsuspecting officer, was 
about to fire, when Grant shouted : — 

" Look out, Thorne ! " 

Just then the Mexican hearing a voice behind him turn- 
ed round, and as he did so, Sergeant James M. Robinson 
(now captain Second Artillery and brevet brigadier-gen- 
eral), sprang forward and ran his little sergeant's sword 
through his body, while Thorne, who had taken the alarm 
at the same instant, turned and shot the luckless "Greaser" 
through the head. 

All this passed in a twinkling. Then Thorne, Grant, and 
Robinson rushed into the mill, and chasing the fugitives 
from room to room, came out at the back of it. The rout 
had been so sudden that many of the enemy on the top of 
the building were unable to escape. Grant, surmising this, 
turned a cart up against the wall and climbed the shafts to 
the roof. 

There to his surprise, he found an Irish soldier with 
musket On his shoulder, quietly pacing to and fro, keeping 
guard over forty or fifty prisoners of his own capturing. 
They still bore their arms, which Grant demanded. 



122 Ciiepultepec Stormed and Captured. L 184 ?. 

As lie was breaking the surrendered muskets one by one 
over the wall and throwing them to the ground, the guns of 
Ciiepultepec, which had got the range at last, began to drop 
shot thick and fast among our troops. The attacking force 
was ordered to withdraw. Grant hustled his prisoners down 
from the mill -roof, and the soldier marched them away. 

Worth neither held Molino del Rey, nor destroyed it. 
His attack, therefore, seemed a needless slaughter, and the 
press severely censured him. It was the bloodiest battle of 
the war, and one-fourth of his command were either killed 
or wounded. Many were captured also, and some were 
barbarously shot after they had surrendered. 

Dent, Anderson, and Grant were all brevetted for their 
gallant conduct in this battle. Grant, however, did not ac- 
cept the brevet, as he received, a few days later, a full pro- 
motion by the death of the first lieutenant of his company, 
to whose rank he succeeded. 

On the thirteenth of September, Scott made a feigned 
movement against the capital. When he saw that the 
Mexican general, thoroughly deceived, fancied it an attack 
in force, Scott ordered a sudden and vigorous assault upon 
Ciiepultepec, now weakened to meet the supposed move- 
ment against the city. 

At a signal, breaches were made in the stone wall at the 
base of the hill, through which the assailants poured and 
climbed the steep ascent in the face of showers of grape and 
bullets. Reaching the redoubt, they drove the enemy from 
his guns and gained the ditch surrounding his fortifications. 
Filling this with their fascines, they rushed across, planted 
their ladders against the walls, and promptly effected a 
lodgment within the ramparts, though not without heavy 
loss. 

Almost before Santa Anna discovered that the movement 
against the city was a feint, and this the real one, the Stars 
and Stripes were floating triumphantly over the fortress 
of Ciiepultepec. Many Mexicans escaped ; many were killed 
in revenge for the slaughter of Americans a few days before, 
and many more were captured. Among the latter were fifty 
general officers, and a hundred cadets of the military 



1347.] Lieutenant Grant Earns a Captaincy. 123 

academy. These little fellows, from ten to sixteen years of 
age, had fought bravely, and many had "been killed. 

In and after this battle also, Grant's gallantry was con- 
spicuous. The hot pursuit, in which he joined, toward the 
San Cosmo Gate,* was stopped at a cross-road, which the 
enemy defended from behind a breastwork and from the 
roof of a house in the rear. . While skirmishing was going 
on in front, Grant, all alone, made a reconnoissance on our 
left. Then, believing the work could be turned, he took 
half a dozen men, led them around on a run with their 
muskets trailed, and so got to the rear of the building. 

There he found Captain Horace Brooks, of the artillery, 
with fifty men, who had come up from another direction. To 
Grant's eager inquiry, whether he would join them, Brooks, 
without the least idea of what was to be done, beyond the 
fact that it was something against the enemy, promptly 
acquiesced, and in three or four minutes his men and Grant's 
had taken the enemy in the rear, were over the earth-work, 
and driving the Mexicans at the point of the bayonet. 

Farther along the road toward the city was a second 
redoubt, but so close did Grant and Brooks keep to the 
fugitives, that the occupants could not fire upon their 
assailants without shooting their own friends; so this 
work also was abandoned, and its little garrison re- 
treated. 

The pursuing party, now within eight hundred yards of 
the city, dragged a small mountain howitzer up to the cupola 
of a church hear by, and began to drop shot into the next 
breastwork, which was right in front of the gate itself. But 
being without support, the little band was compelled at 
length to abandon the unequal contest. 

Grant received honorable mention in the reports. Cap- 
tain Brooks gave him credit for helping to carry the strong 
field-work, and turn the enemy's right "after an obstinate 
resistance ;" Major Lee, commanding the Fourth, for behav- 
ing with '"distinguished gallantry," and Colonel Garland, 
who led the brigade, for ' ' acquitting himself most nobly on 

* In the rear of the city, directly opposite the gate on the front at which Kearny 
had been wounded a few days before. 



124 End of the Mexican Wae. E 184 *. 

several occasions under my observation." He was after- 
ward brevetted a captain, to date from that day. 

Next morning the city surrendered, and the towering 
form of the American General entered, greeted by triumphant 
huzzas from his troops. The war was over. Scott' s campaign, 
though embracing no large operations, had been conducted 
with a sagacity, promptness, and skill which increased his 
well-earned reputation. At first, the people had been im- 
patient about his slow progress, and denunciatory of West 
Pointers generally. Now these clamors were hushed. All 
officers who had won much reputation were graduates of 
the Military Academy. Of the four hundred and fifty killed, 
it was the Alma Mater of more than half. 

The Mexican privates had fought with great gallantly. 
They were sorry-looking soldiers, ragged, dirty, wearing 
sandals instead of shoes ; but they were brawny, thick-set 
fellows, who could subsist on little food, and were capable 
of the highest discipline. Well officered, they would make 
as good troops as any in the world, but their leaders were 
sadly inefficient. Most of them, too, were badly armed 
with old flint-lock muskets ; but even in our own army not 
many percussion locks were yet in use. 

Few officers, except the commander-in-chief, had gained 
the bubble reputation, even at the cannon's mouth. Robert 
E. Lee* had won, perhaps, more feme than any other regu- 
lar, and Jefferson Davis as much as any other volunteer. 
Grant's energy and coolness had given him a name some- 
what above the average, but where all did so well none 
had become distinguished. 

The war was so essentially in the pro-slavery interest, 
that a large Northern party opposed it bitterly. In the 
Senate of the United States, in February, 1847, when a 
member asserted that the Mexicans ought to welcome our 
troops, TomCorwin, the Ohio "wagon boy" replied : — 

" If I were a Mexican as I am an American, I would 
welcome them with bloody hands to hospitable graves !" 
This remark, like the resolution of the Massachusetts 

* Chief of Engineers on the staff of Scott, and his most able and trusted adviser. 



1347]. What it Lost axd Gained Us. 125 

Senate, thirty years before, which, denounced the war of 
1812 as " unworthy of a moral and religious people," called 
out sweeping maledictions. Corwin was unsparingly de- 
nounced and as hotly defended. How strange seem these 
fierce contests when the lurid glare of the hour has faded 
into the calm, pale light of history! The "wagon hoy" 
sleeps now with that white Hand upon his lips which hushes 
all passion, and makes successive partisans wonder at the 
bitterness of every generation but their own. 

The war had lasted twenty-six months. Our entire loss 
of life was twenty-five thousand men. Battle slays its 
thousands, but disease its tens of thousands. Com- 
paratively few soldiers are killed by the bullet; of all 
these less than fifteen hundred died of wounds. The war 
cost us one hundred and sixty millions of dollars, but it 
added to our domain California and New Mexico, a region 
large enough to make fifteen great States of the Union. 
Yain were all attempts to prevent their incorporation into 
our territory — j ust as vain as the attempt of Josiah Quincy 
and other Federalists, fifty years before, to prevent the 
Louisiana purchase. 

How little the fathers dreamed of the territorial destiny 

of the Republic ! Quincy declared that the annexation of 

Louisiana would justify old States in seceding from the 

Union, "amicably if they can, violently if they must." He 

had actually heard that this new region might be cut up 

into six or more States, and that even the mouth of the 

Ohio would be east of the center of the contemplated 

empire ! It was not for "these wild men on the Missouri nor 

the Anglo-Hispano-Gallo- Americans who bask in the sands 

on the mouth of the Mississippi," that our fathers had fought, 

Years later, John Quincy Adams fancied himself uttering a 

very extravagant jest, and caused general merriment in the 

House by saying that, at the rate we were going, we should 

yet see in Congress "the member from the Pacific," and 

"the member from the North Pole." And, still later, one 

chief argument Webster used against the annexation of 

Texas was, that our territory was already quite as large as 

wisdom or safety permitted. But not so did the people 



126 Taylor Nominated for the Presidency. [i848. 

regard it. They acquiesced in expansion, as they always 
will till Manifest Destiny is fulfilled, and the Republic 
stretches from the frozen zone to the glowing isthmus. 

As we have said, Taylor came out the hero of the war. 
In vain did leading Whigs denounce him as "an ignorant 
frontier colonel." Their national convention at Philadel- 
phia, in June, 1848, named him for President. It was 
against the fiercest opposition. After the nomination, 
Henry Wilson, a young delegate fresh from the anti- 
slavery atmosphere of Massachusetts, sprang upon a bench 
and exclaimed : — 

" So help me God, I will do all in my power to prevent 
General Taylor's election !" 

Daniel Webster denounced the nomination as "not fit to 
be made," and Horace Greeley, though acquiescing in it, 
wrote of the platform, which was strongly pro-slavery : 
"We scorn it; we spit upon it; we trample it under our 
feet!" 

Already the Whig party gave signs of being riven by 
that Irrepressible Conflict which was to find final settlement 
only through the last logic of kings. 

During the first few months of peace the army remained 
in Mexico. Grant was still busy with the duties of quarter- 
master. In this position he had impressed all with his 
practical talent and efficiency. In the hardest of marches 
he never failed to feed his regiment. Using his fast horse to 
some purpose, he went ahead, and by the time the men came 
up there was fresh beef awaiting them. He was careless 
about his dress, wearing hair and whiskers long and rag- 
ged. He always rose early in the morning, smoked much, 
chewed tobacco, but never drank to excess nor indulged in 
the other profligacy so common in that country of loose 
morals. Of his ruling passion, Coppee, who had been with 
him at West Point, relates this anecdote : — 

" lie was an admirable horseman, and had a very spirited horse. A Mexi- 
can gentleman with whom he was on friendly terms, asked the loan of his 
horse. Grant said afterward, 'I was afraid he could not ride him, and yet 
I knew if I said a word to that effect, the suspicious Spanish nature would 
think I did not wish to lend him.' The result was, that the Mexican mounted 
him, was thrown before he had gone two blocks, and killed on the spot." 



1848 -] Quartermaster Grant is Robbed. 127 

Another officer gives the following reminiscence : — 

" One day he came to see Colonel Howard, who w r as in command of the 
castle of Chepultepec. The colonel's quarters were inside of the fortress, 
which was surrounded by a high, broad earth-work. Grant rode up the 
slope outside, and, after riding around the castle two or three times, and see- 
ing no post to hitch his horse to, deliberately spurred the animal down the 
broad, but long and steep stone stairs that led into the fort. "When Colonel 
Howard came out of the castle and saw Grant's horse tied at the door, 
where, perhaps, a horse had never before been, he said, in astonishment, 
' Lieutenant, how in the world did you get your horse in here?' 'Rode him 
in, sir,' quietly replied Grant. 'And how do you expect to get him out?' 
' Ride him up the steps instead of down,' answered Grant; and, mounting 
the animal, he rode him to the foot of the stairs, and, with Grant on his 
back, the intelligent brute climbed like a cat to the top, where Grant, waving 
his hat to Colonel Howard below, disappeared like a flash over the breast- 
works." 

Before midsummer the treaty had been ratified by both 
governments, and the army started back to Vera Cruz. On 
the way our lieutenant met with a misfortune. Every thing 
was paid for in cash. Mexico dealt chiefly with England 
and France, and while glad to cash drafts on London, would 
only take those drawn on New York at a discount of twenty- 
five or thirty per cent. The quartermaster must have 
specie to buy with, and Lieutenant Grant had a thou- 
sand dollars of Government silver for that purpose. The 
lock of his own trunk being broken, he placed it in that 
of Captain Gore. But one night Gore' s trunk was opened by 
a thief, who stole all his valuables and this public money. 

Grant made a report of the fact, supported by the affida- 
vits of several brother officers, and asked the Government 
that he might be relieved of responsibility for the loss. It 
was brought before Congress, but in that circumlocution 
office twelve years passed before any action was taken. Fi- 
nally, in 1862, after Grant had become a major-general and 
the hero of Donelson, a bill was passed which provided that 
in the settlement of his accounts as commissary and regi- 
mental quartermaster of the Fourth Infantry, one thousand 
dollars should be allowed him. Even then, eight senators, 
nearly all Republicans, voted against it. 

Grant's regiment remained in Mississippi during July 



123 Returns Home, and Defends Taylor. [isl- 
and August. Obtaining leave of absence, lie went to St. 
Louis and paid a visit to Miss Dent, whose devotion bad 
never wavered through those years of separation. Then he 
visited his father s house in Bethel, Ohio, where he was greet- 
ed with great rejoicings. He had often written home during 
the war, but for six months before the capture of Mexico, 
not one word had come to his parents. They had suffered 
keenly, and anxiety turned his mother's hair gray. How 
many the hearts and homes which war makes desolate ! 

Of course, our quartermaster brought home a Mexican 
horse. He also brought as body-servant a young peon, 
named Gregory, presented to him by a Mexican gentleman. 
The lieutenant had educated him in the common branches, 
and now left him at his father' s. For some years the lad 
remained with him, but finally went back to Mexico. 

Grant had returned in the midst of a hot Presidential 
canvass. Democratic newspapers were publishing the affi- 
davit of an Ohio volunteer that, at Camargo, Taylor had de- 
nounced Ohio soldiers as a set "of d — d thieves, who would 
run at the sight of an enemy." Grant happened to know 
the exact amount of truth in the story — a much larger grain 
than the delicious bits of biography which adorn our news- 
papers during every Presidential canvass usually contain. 
An Ohio soldier had seized a chicken in sight of Taylor, who 
ordered him to drop it. In pretending to comply, the volun- 
teer only passed the fated fowl to a comrade behind him. 
The general saw this, also, and shonted : — 

' ' Throw down that chicken. Any man who will steal 
is a d — d coward and would run. from the enemy." 

Grant, who happened to be sitting on his horse beside 
Taylor when this occurred, indignantly denied the story. 
He urged that if it were persisted in, Taylor himself should 
be written to, and that he would tell the truth though 
it might defeat his election. A proposition most creditable 
to his own simple integrity, but not indicating profound 
familiarity with the by-ways of politics. Grant said that 
he should vote for Taylor if he were in a doubtful State ; 
but election day found him in Kentucky, and he did not 
vote at all. 



1849.] Wedding. Winter at Sackett's Harbor. 129 



CHAPTER IX. 



MAEEIES. 



After remaining a few days at home, Grant returned to 
St. Louis, where, on the twenty-second of August, 1848, he 
was married, at the bride's residence, on the corner of 
Fourth and Cerre Streets, to Miss Julia B. Dent. He had 
saved her brother's life, in Mexico, and opposition to the 
match had ceased. It was a merry wedding, as all wed- 
dings should be. The dancing continued until midnight. 
A Santa Fe traveler diverted the company with a lively and 
graceful Spanish dance. Among the guests were many 
friends of the Dent family, and many of Grant' s old com- 
rades from the city and the barracks. 

Soon after the wedding, the regiment was ordered to the 
northern frontier, with head-quarters at Detroit, where com- 
panies C and E were stationed. Though Grant's place as 
quartermaster was with head-quarters, a brother officer got 
him ordered to the undesirable winter residence of Sackett's 
Harbor, on Lake Ontario, where one company was, and the 
rival secured the position of acting quartermaster. Grant 
uncomplainingly obeyed, and, with his bride, spent the win- 
ter at Sackett's Harbor. But his case was laid before Gen- 
eral Scott, who promptly ordered him back to Detroit — 
after the closing of navigation had rendered winter travel 
impracticable. He returned there, however, early in the 
following spring. With characteristic magnanimity, he 
never revenged himself upon the officer who had caused 
his banishment. On the contrary, he aided and befriended 
him in after life. 

At Detroit Grant spent more than two years, in the dull, 
monotonous existence of a garrison officer in peace times, its 
daily routine of idleness only enlivened by an occasional 
"board of survey." The record of one of these exciting 



130 The Young Couple begin Housekeeping, [is*9. 



events now before me, shows that in May, 1849, a few tent- 
poles, tents, knapsacks, and haversacks, were examined 
and thus condemned : — 

" The Board are of the opinion that the above-enumerated articles have 
been worn out in the service, and are not fit for further use. 

U U. S. GRANT, First Lieutenant, Fourth Infantry, President." 

The old barracks in the upper part of Detroit — not out- 
side of it, where Fort Wayne stands — were tumble-down 
affairs. They extended from Catharine Street to the Gratiot 
Road, four or five blocks, and from Rlvard Street to Russell, 
one block. The buildings were of wood, and surrounded by a 
board fence. The sutler's store, hospital, and officers 1 quar- 
ters have been removed a short distance, and are now occu- 
pied as dwellings or stores. The ground upon which they 
formerly stood is covered with residences and business 
blocks. Our German fellow-citizens have taken possession. 
Just north of the old fort is one of the largest breweries in 
the country, and on the corner where Grant's office was, 
an immense lager-beer hall is rising. 

The barracks were only used as quarters for the men. 
The married officers lived in the town outside. 

Lieutenant and Mrs. Grant immediately began house- 
keeping, with the bravery of honest, self-respecting poverty 
and the glowing confidence of young love, which sees only 
rosy tints in the overarching heavens. Their first home was 
near the garrison, in a little frame dwelling, with an arbor 
in front. It still stands on Fort Street East, between 
Russell and Rivard — a block which has changed very little 
since. Then, as now, Fort Street West was a fashionable 
quarter, but Fort Street East was occupied by Germans and 
other working people, and by some undesirable residents. 
When Grant took the house, it was suggested that he 
might have disorderly neighbors. But his domesticity was 
true, and he replied : — 

"No matter; if home has a hell outside of it, it ought 
to be a heaven within." 

The dwelling belonged to George M. Rich, and was 
hired for two hundred and fifty dollars a year. Old neigh- 



1850] Axd a Sox is Born to Them. 131 

Ibors still recall the pleasant interchange of evening visits, 
with their games of dominoes, and stories of Mexico and of 
pioneer life in Detroit. 

In the spring of 1S50 they left this house, Mrs. Grant 
going to her father's, in St. Louis, where her first son was 
born, and her husband making his home with his friend 
and comrade, Captain J. II. Gore, in a cottage rented from 
Mr. W. A. Bacon, at two hundred and fifty dollars per year, 
and situated on Jefferson Avenue, at the corner of Russell 
Street, With the Gores they remained permanently after 
Mrs. Grant's return. Jefferson is now The Avenue of 
Detroit,— as one egotistical thoroughfare in every city is 
"bent on being called. The pleasant cottage in which they 
lived, itself unchanged, is now surrounded by elegant resi- 
dences. But then the country was very open. Immedi- 
ately back of the house was a pasture. There were no 
sidewalks and the soldiers had laid a single plank up to the 
barracks, and dug a ditcli beside it for a drain. 

As their landlord had been for several years connected 
with the army, his heart was warm toward officers. He was 
by profession a teacher, and his little school-house stood 
immediately back of the dwelling ; so he encountered both 
tenants nearly every day. He found the elder one very 
sociable, and had frequent chats with him. But Grant was 
silent, and Bacon rather regarded him as the boy and Gore 
as the man. Though seeing him daily for twelve months, 
Bacon remembered so little of him that, thirteen years later, 
when the "Unconditional Surrender" letter was flashed 
over the wires to a thrilled and exulting North, Bacon 
pondered — "Grant, Grant : was not that a Lieutenant Grant 
who lived in my house with Captain Gore?" 

Finally, remembering that the lieutenant had one day 
scratched his name with a diamond ring on a pane of glass 
in an upper chamber, he went home and looked at the 
autograph, before he was quite sure of his old tenant 1 s name. 

Detroit was the head-quarters of a large department, of 
which Major Sibley, from whom our Sibley tent is named, 
was quartermaster. Grant was quartermaster and com- 
missary only of the post. He spent little time in his own 



132 Grant's Life in Detroit. [isso. 

office at the barracks, leaving its light duties to his sergeant ; 
"but he was frequently at the office of the dejDartmental quar- 
termaster, where he ordered supplies for his regiment. The 
present Quartermaster-General of Michigan, then Major Sib- 
ley's clerk, recalls that after first meeting the post quarter- 
master, asked of Grant's sergeant: — 

" Why in the world have they put that lieutenant in as 
quartermaster and commissary \ Is it because he knows 
less than any other officer in the regiment ?" 

"He is the ablest and best officer in the old Fourth," 
replied the sergeant indignantly. "He knows the duties 
of a soldier better than any other man in the regiment." 

Two doors below Woodward Street, on Jefferson Avenue, 
in a building yet standing, was the large, well-filled sutler 
store of the important post. One proprietor was a son of 
General Brady, famous in the War of 1812, and in Grant's 
day spending his old age in Detroit. This store was the 
favorite head-quarters both for retired officers and those 
on duty. In the back room a barrel of whisky stood always 
on tap, and each visitor helped himself, Grant not more 
nor less frequently than the rest. 

Frontier posts, in peace times, are fraught with the most 
dangerous temptations for army officers. Active campaign- 
ing has left in them that insatiable craving for excitement 
which is kindled by all experiences full of novelty, of 
hardship, and of peril. However conscientious, they have 
practically nothing to do. In many cases, too, they are 
without the restraining influence of wives and children. Is 
it strange that so many fall deep into drunkenness and 
other vices % 

Grant, who never could endure absolute idleness, did 
not seek relief in any excess of drinking. Horse-flesh was 
Ids "particular vanity." Detroit contained only twenty- 
five thousand people, and all the army officers were well 
known. The old residents still remember Grant for this 
trait. Whenever asked for reminiscences, they immediately 
tell stories of his gray horse, brought from Mexico, which 
was finally raffled off; or of his frequent gallops on the 
hardy little French ponies, which ran wild on the marshes 



1850.] Outdoor and Indoor Pleasures. 133 

just outside of town; or of his running or riding races, 
sometimes, to the consternation of the timid and the delight 
of the gay, on Jefferson Avenue itself, where his face was 
exceedingly familiar. Everybody knew the appearance of 
' ' Sam Grant " in a cutter in winter or a buggy in summer, 
flying along after his "Cicotte mare." Then, as now, 
driving was the favorite recreation of Detroit, and the 
people decidedly approved both of him and the beautiful 
jet-black little mare, for which, in the beginning, Grant 
agreed to pay Cicotte, her owner, two hundred dollars, on 
condition that she would pace a mile in two fifty-five, 
drawing two men in a buggy. 

The place chosen for this test was Jefferson Avenue, 
where the spirited mare finished her mile inside of the pre- 
scribed time, with Grant and Cicotte riding behind her. So 
the quartermaster bought her, and kept her for several 
years. Finally, he sent her to St. Louis, where she won a 
race for a thousand dollars, and was afterward sold for 
fourteen hundred. 

Detroit had many attractions. A frontier city, and the 
home of Cass and Brady and other retired army officers, 
it was necessarily hospitable; and containing many old 
French families, it was fond of dancing and other gayeties. 
During the winter there were weekly assemblies at the 
leading hotel, the Exchange, where it is remembered that 
Grant, though a constant attendant, very seldom danced, 
but stood quietly looking on, with a pleasant word for 
everybody, and ready to drink in moderation with his 
more active comrades fresh from the cotillion. Mesdames 
Grant and Gore were fond of society, so there were also 
agreeable parties and masquerades at home, where candles, 
standing on stags' antlers, did service for gas, and supper 
was laid on the back piazza— the pleasant back piazza over- 
looking the garden full of peach-trees, where Grant loved 
to smoke his cigars in the golden twilight of summer 



evenings. 



Rarely was life disturbed by more exciting events. 
Sometimes the military were called out to defend the 
authorities, holding some wretched fugitive slave in cus- 



134 A Quarrel with Zachary Chandler. [1851. 

tody, against tlie aroused people ; but Grant, fortunately, 
never Lad to render this revolting service. Horse-races and 
dog-fights were more common. Two dogs of Thomas Lewis 
and Horace Gray one day had a fierce contest on Grosse 
Island, in Detroit River. Finally, Gray, who resided there, 
exclaimed vehemently : — 

" By heavens, Lewis ! either your dog or I must leave 
the island I" 

Grant was among the amused spectators, but left before 
the tenacious dogs could be separated. Twenty years after, 
he met Gray again. He was commanding the Army of 
the Tennessee, and Gray was major of the Fourth Michigan 
Cavalry. As they shook hands, Grant asked : — 

" Well, Gray, which did leave the island, you or the 
dog?" 

Though the last man in the world to quarrel, shortly be- 
fore leaving Detroit, Grant got into a lively controversy 
with Zachary Chandler, at present United States senator, 
but then a rising young dry -goods merchant. Grant com- 
plained of him for violating a city ordinance in not remov- 
ing the snow and ice from the sidewalk in front of his 
house. The neglect had caused much inconvenience to all 
the officers, and a severe sprain to our quartermaster who 
slipped and fell one night on his way home. The following 
sworn complaint, made before the mayor, is yet preserved 
in the Recorder's Court : — 

State of Michigan, City of Detroit, ss. 

U. S. Grant, being duly sworn, deposes and says, that on or about the 
10th day of January, 1851, and for twenty-five days previous thereto, within 
the city of Detroit, Zachary Chandler did neglect to keep his sidewalk clear 
and free from snow and ice on Jefferson Avenue, in front of the house occu- 
pied by him, and did then and there commit many other causes contrary to 
the ordinances of said city. Further deponent sayeth not. 

U. S. Grant. 

"When the trial came on, Chandler insisted upon his 
right to a jury, and conducted his own case. The chief 
witnesses against him were the young officers, and he as- 
sailed them with a power of vituperation on which the 
United States senator has hardly improved, notwithstanding 



1851]. ClIAKDLEK FlXED SlX CENTS AXD COSTS. 135 

Ms great success in that direction. He denounced them as 
idle loafers, living on the community ; and, turning to Grant, 
Gore, and Sibley, said : — 

, " If you soldiers would keep sober, perhaps you would 
not fall on people's pavements and hurt your legs." 

The facts, however, were proved, and the jury was com- 
pelled to find against him. But, whether because public 
sympathy was with the civilian, or because the ordinance 
was really a dead letter, the verdict assessed only costs of 
court and a fine of six cents. The whole legal expenses to 
Chandler were less than eight dollars, for which trival out- 
lay he enjoyed the unspeakable luxury of indulging in a 
great deal of abuse. 

The trial was a nine-days' talk in the little city, and it 
was generally expected that Grant or one of his comrades 
would attack the vituperative civilian. Chandler, physi- 
cally an enormous fellow, who "traveled on his muscle," 
was rather anxious to accept this appeal to another court, 
but nothing came of it. Both he and Grant laughed hearti- 
ly over the quarrel fifteen years later, when the senator 
entertained the General of all our armies at his pleasant 
home in Detroit. 

In June, 1851, the head-quarters of the Fourth were re- 
moved to Sackett' s Harbor, New York, a village of a thou- 
sand people. The spot was not far off where, a hundred 
years before, in the old French war, Grant' s grand-uncle, and 
his great-grandfather, were killed. In the war of 1812, too, 
Sackett' s was a point of great importance, and the rendez- 
vous of the American fleet on the lake. Here Henry Eck- 
ford made himself famous by building one man-of-war in 
forty-five days from the time the first tree was cut for her 
hull, and getting another hundred-gun frigate, one hundred 
and eighty-four feet long, and of thirty-two hundred tons 
burden, almost ready for launching in thirty-six days. The 
unexpected declaration of peace caused work upon her to be 
suspended. So the Government built a wooden house over 
her, and she perches now, looking just as Eckford left her 
half a century ago, but with her huge timbers a mass of 
powder post, and as soft as cork. Hard by stands an old 



136 Grant at Sackett's Harbor. C 1851 - 

stone house, erected at the same time as a hotel, and then 
the largest building between the Hudson and the Pacific. 

When Grant went to Sackett's Harbor it contained sev- 
eral old block-houses, built for Indian fighting. One still 
stands, and by doing duty as a stable, shows to what base 
uses we may return. The railroad has reduced Sackett' s to 
an uneasy urban ghost. It has a custom-house, but no 
imports ; and a naval station, commanded by an admiral 
who manifests the utmost efficiency compatible with the fact 
that there is not a war vessel of any kind within his entire 
department. 

The Fourth was established in the pleasant Madison 
Barracks, of stone, half a mile from the lake, which afforded 
agreeable residences for the officers and their wives. 

Grant, who still retained his capable and trustworthy 
quartermaster-sergeant,* had comparatively little to do 
but sign his name to official documents and draw his pay. 
An enthusiastic friend in the village, now has hanging in 
his parlor, framed and glazed, a notice dated July second, 
1851, inviting sealed proposals for supplying the garrison 
for one year with fresh beef, " of good, wholesome quality, 
necks and shanks to be excluded," and signed, " U. S. 
Grant, Brevet- Captain, and A. A. C. S., Fourth Infantry." 
In this quiet hamlet the quartermaster won his usual 
reputation. 

"I can't see," said the collector of customs to one of 
his clerks, who had become much attached to Grant, "what 
you find in that man to be so fond of his company." 

The friend insisted that there was a great deal more in 
"that man" than he had credit for; that he was full of 
knowledge, not only of affairs, but even of mechanics, and 
could give much curious information about machinery. 

He always seemed careless and at leisure, but close ob- 
servers noticed that his eye took in much of which his tongue 
gave no report. Then, as now, he would quietly scrutinize 



* This sergeant now resides in Washington Territory. He lost both feet by an 
accident, and Grant, with habitual kindness, procured his remaining in the employ 
of the Government, and the appointment of his son to West Point. 



1852.] Odd Fellow and Son of Tempeeance. 137 

a new visitor from head to foot, as if to read his character 
through and through. Though by inclination a worshiper 
with the Methodists, here he was a frequent, and his wife a 
regular, attendant at the Episcopal church, and when money 
was raised to erect a new house he joined in a subscription 
paper, still preserved because it bears his autograph. 

Having seen the evil effects of liquor on brother officers 
in peace times, he became a Son of Temperance soon after 
reaching Sackett's, and drank no spirits whatever during 
his residence there. He also joined the Odd-Fellows, attend- 
ing all their weekly meetings, though not taking any active 
part. But once chancing to be put upon a committee, he 
dissented from the majority report which was made by 
Messrs. Ford and Dana, one a lawyer, the other a bank 
cashier, and both leading citizens. At first it was thought 
a little presuming that a minority report, signed simply 
"U. S. Grant," should undertake to combat the views of 
men of such prominence and capacity. But the document 
proved so able as to kindle a suspicion that after all the 
quartermaster was quite competent to say his say when 
occasion demanded. 

A citizen of Sackett' s Harbor, relates that one quarrel ex- 
cited a mild approach to profanity. ' ' I tell the tale as it 
was told to me." Naturally, a horse was at the bottom of 
it. Two acquaintances, Phillips and De Wolf, were on the 
ice of the lake to ' ' time ' ' a horse they had just bought. The 
first half-mile was done in one twelve. De Wolf shouted to 
urge the racer to higher speed, at which the animal showed 
a little restiveness. Phillips, expecting that the next thing 
would be his heels through the dasher, incontinently rolled 
out on the ice, taking the reins with him. De Wolf dropped 
to the bottom of the sleigh, and only recovered the lines 
after the frightened horse had run two miles, at the immi- 
nent risk of his own and his driver's neck. Grant saw the 
the whole scene and bitterly upbraided Phillips for desert- 
ing his friend ; but Phillips alleged that it was involuntary, 
as he had been thrown from the sleigh. Grant hotly re- 
plied : — 

" It's a d — d lie ! How could he fling you out and not 



133 A very Uneventful Life. [1^2. 

De Wolf? You are a coward. Never speak to me again ! 
If you do I'll kick you." 

Petty races, and even contests between a soldiers' fire 
company and a citizens' fire company interested the officers. 
In sootli tliese military heroes, depriYed of the spirit-stirring 
drum, the ear-piercing fife, and other fascinations of the big 
wars, that make ambition Yirtue, found themselYes also de- 
priYed of the tranquil mind. They were sadly at a loss for 
amusement and caught at any thing. One writes me : — 

" Grant's life as an army officer was a very quiet, uneventful one. I was 
in the regiment with him during a portion of the Mexican war. and after- 
ward ou the frontier, hut really can say nothing of his sayings or doings 
worth mentioning. He went about a good deal with horse-fanciers, took his 
drinks, smoked his pipe incessantly, played loo, and at length, after going to 
Sackett's Harbor, joined the "Sons," all in a very prosy, common-place sort 
of fashion. He read little, though I remember his expressing some liking 
for Reynolds's writings. 

''During his whole connection with the regiment he would have been con- 
sidered, both by his brother officers and himself, about as likely to reach the 
position of Pope of Rome, as General-in-Chief, or President of the United 
States. lie was regarded as a restless, energetic man, who must have occu- 
pation, and plenty of it, for his own good, but as sincere and true, an amiable 
good fellow. He was modest, and unambitious— such a man as in our land 
of pretension and bluster could not be expected to go far. 

" It required just such opportunities, events, and good luck to bring out the 
strong qualities and soldierly merits of Grant's character. Had he remained 
in the regular service. I think he would have jogged on quietly, doing duty 
with his regiment. But if circumstances had placed him in the cavalry. I 
believe he would have made his mark as a cavalry leader. He had all the 
requisite qualities, the physique and the morale.' 1 '' 

Twenty-nine years old, and his hour had not struck ! 
He was yet to be for many years "a brave man struggling 
with the storms of fate." 



1852.] Ordered to the Pacific Coast. 139 



CHAPTER X. 



RESIGNS. 



Ix June. 18.5*2. the Fourth Infantry was ordered to the 
Pacific Coast. Mrs. Grant's health would ri£t permit her to 
undertake the Ions: iournev. so with sore regret her hus- 
hand left her behind, and she accepted an invitation from 
his father and mother, to visit them. 

The first son. already two years old. bore the name of his 
grandfather Dent. During Mis. Grant's stay at Bethel a 
second was horn, and named Ulysses. This young gentle- 
man made his advent while Jesse was at Columbus attend- 
ing the last Whig State Convention ever held in Ohio, and 
writing the platform which the expiring party adopted. 

A few weeks after the birth of the young Ulysses, Mrs. 
Grant went to her father s, where she remained during her 
husband' s entire absence. The boy was called * * Buckeye, 
by Colonel Dent's negroes, because born in the Buckeye 
State. That was soon shortened to -'Buck," a nickname 
which he still bears.* 

The Fourth Infantry, coming from various points on the 
northern lakes, concentrated on Governor s Island. New 
York Bay. On the fifth of July, eight companies, com- 
manded by Lieutenant-Colonel Bonneville, embarked for 
California, on the steamship Oh io. 

Quartermaster Grant went with the force, which num- 
bered over seven hundred, including eighty camp followers. 
Five officers took their wives and children. The Ohio had 
her proper complement of passengers before passage was 
engaged for the troops, and was. therefore, excessively 
crowded. Temporary berths for the soldiers were erected 

* The following are General Grant's children in 1868: — I. Fred, born in St. 
Louis. May. 1850. II. Ulysses (-Buck"), at BetheL Ohio. July. 1S52. in. Xellie, 
on the Dent farm, August. 1555. IV. Jesse Root Dent farm, February. 1S5S. 



140 How the Ladies Crossed the Isthmus. C 1852 - 

on deck several tiers high. The close uncomfortable 
quarters occasioned so much discontent and murmuring, 
that a strong guard was posted to prevent insubordination. 
Grant was constantly on duty, and as always popular 
among officers and men. 

The weather was fair, and on the eleventh day the regi- 
ment reached Aspinwall. At that swampy, mushroom vil- 
lage, born of the California migration, all was excitement 
and confusion. Civilians were running hither and thither 
to obtain transportation across the Isthmus, and officers 
were busy in arranging plans to get their men over. Under 
the laws of New Granada, soldiers could not traverse the 
country with arms in their hands ; so provision was made 
for transporting the guns separately. 

The steamship company at New York had contracted to 
take the command across the fever-breeding Isthmus. The 
Panama Railway was completed only twenty miles, to the 
Chagres River. After a night in Aspinwall the party started 
by rail and soon reached the Chagres, where the ladies em- 
barked for Cruces, eleven miles farther up the stream. They 
went upon open scows — the largest holding twenty persons 
— propelled by natives, six or eight of whom walked the 
planks upon the sides of each, plying their poles. As the 
current was very rapid, and the Chagres abounds in ob- 
structions, the progress was about one mile an hour. The 
fleet set off late in the afternoon, and darkness overtook it 
three miles from its destination. The boatmen declared it 
unsafe to go on ; so the passengers remained without food 
or water on the noxious river through the chilly night. 

Next morning the slow flotilla reached Cruces. 
Thence the party continued overland, the men walking, 
and most of the ladies riding mules, procured with great 
difficulty through the energy of Grant. The traveling was so 
bad that most of the women donned pantaloons, and rode 
astride in sensible, masculine fashion. Several Sisters of 
Charity went in hammocks suspended from poles borne on 
the shoulders of natives, while the delighted children perched 
on the backs of nude, dark-skinned denizens of the Isthmus. 

It was the rainy season, and the road mostly a narrow 



1852.] G-rant's Energy and Resources Displayed. 141 

defile, through dense chaparral, and deep gorges. The black 
mud was more than a foot deep. The mules waded it when 
they must, but plunged into thorny thickets and scaled 
sharp rocks to avoid it when they could. 

After crossing precipitous mountains, and suffering al- 
ternately from broiling sun and drenching rain, the travel- 
ers reached Panama. There, through narrow streets, crowd- 
ed with dusky men and women, and with native soldiers 
riding mules, armed with cutlasses, and swearing vengeance 
upon the invading Yankees, they wended their tortuous way 
to the Louisiana Hotel. 

On the second morning was heard the welcome whistle of 
the steamer Golden Gate, from San Francisco, and the ladies 
were received on board. Several days passed before the 
soldiers came up after a long inarch by the way of Gor- 
gona. Grant's duties kept him with the men and prop- 
erty of the regiment. He found it "a hard road to travel," 
particularly for the poor women and children. To the 
drum-major he gave twenty-five dollars to buy a mule for 
his wife. But it was impossible to get one, so she trudged 
through the mud and thickets with her lord. As skirts were 
impracticable, Grant gave her a citizen's coat, and her hus- 
band furnished her with pantaloons. During the march, 
malignant cholera broke out. Many soldiers were seized 
with it, and after excruciating tortures, closed their eyes, 
and were laid tenderly away under the endless tangle of 
shining vines, the bright flowers, and the gay birds of that 
tropical region. 

The utter failure of the contractors brought out Grant's 
resources and energy. By aid of the alcalde at Cruces, he 
succeeded in procuring some transportation ; and his great 
activity and efficiency were generally recognized. Consid- 
erable property was necessarily destroyed, for reasons 
which he afterward reported to a board of survey : — 



"Camp, near Benicia, California, ) 
September 3, 1852. J 
" Gentlemen : I respectfully submit the following statement relative to 
the loss of public property while crossing the Isthmus of Panama. The 



142 Eavages of Cholera m his Regiment. C 1852 - 

regiment sailed from New York on the 5th of July last, under a contract 
which was to cover all expenses of transportation on land and water. 

"Upon arriving at Navy Bay, it was decided by the contractors or their 
agents to send the troops by the G-orgona route, and the baggage by the 

Cruces road. 

" Upon arriving at Cruces I found that the agent of the contracting par- 
ties had entered into a contract with Mr. Duckworth for the transportation 
of baggage, etc., from there to Panama. After waiting three days for Mr. 
Duckworth to furnish transportation I found that at the terms he had agreed 
upon, he was entirely unable to comply with his engagement. I was obliged, 
therefore, to enter into contract myself for the transportation of our baggage. 
This detained me two days more in Cruces, waiting to see the regimental 
baggage packed or safely stored. During this detention, the cholera broke 
out, among the few troops left with me as a guard, so badly that I was 
obliged, under recommendation of Surgeon Tripler, to put them under 

cover. 

" The baggage, being protected only by tents, was, of course, liable to 
the depredations of the inhabitants, until it could be got under cover. 
Buildings were procured immediately to put the property in. All the na- 
tives that could be induced to work (about ten in number) were employed 
to pack the property and store it. But there being a large amount in bulk 
and weight, it could not be removed in one day, neither could the natives be 
employed at night; hence, a portion of the property was left over night un- 
protected. 

" Had transportation been furnished promptly at Cruces, as it should have 
been under the contract, it is my opinion that little or no loss would have 
been sustained. 

" I am, gentlemen, yours very respectfully, 
U. S. Grant, Brevet Capt. 4th Lift., Quartermaster 4th Kegiment." 

Grant's duties kept him on the Isthmus after most of the 
troops had embarked. Already the regiment had lost one 
hundred and fifty men, women, and children "by cholera. 
Among other victims a sergeant and his wife died, leaving 
five children, one a baby at the breast. 

When the command was all on the Golden Gate, the 
pestilence again broke out virulently. Quarantine regula- 
tions were strictly enforced, so the infected ship could not 
land, but was compelled to lie at anchor in Panama Bay 
or beat about in the open sea. There was dire consterna- 
tion among the passengers. Veteran soldiers who had faced 
death in many battles, gave way utterly before this appall- 



1852.] His Kindness to the Suffering Men. 143 

ing foe. Nearly a hundred were buried in ocean graves. 
Only one officer fell, Grant's old and loved friend, Major 
John H. Gore, a gentleman of unusual ability and promise, 
and warmly loved by his comrades. He was buried on an 
island in the Bay of Panama. 

Quartermaster Grant at once detailed Lieutenant McFee- 
ley to escort the bereaved wife to her father' s house in Cov- 
ington, Kentucky. She was transported back to Aspinwall 
in a hammock carried by two natives, while a third carried 
her little son upon his shoulders, and others bore five more 
hammocks containing her baggage and nurse. On the 
road, these thieves to the manner born stole her silver, 
jewelry, and even her clothing, until she and her child were 
left with only one suit apiece. 

Meanwhile, upon the Golden Gate, Grant, ever forgetful 
of himself, mingled constantly with the suffering men, nurs- 
ing them tenderly, and inspiring them with something of his 
own cheerfulness and fortitude. After some weeks of the 
epidemic, the regimental surgeon insisted upon a complete 
fumigation of the vessel. So rafts were procured, and the 
little command transported to the neighboring island of 
Flamingo. The authorities of Panama, from the main-land, 
witnessed this movement through their telescopes, and at 
once concluded that the Great Republic, of whose voracity 
Spanish- Americans ever stand in excusable fear, was land- 
ing an army of filibusters. Thereupon the governor of 
the city steamed over to the ship in the little tug Tobor/a, 
and demanded an explanation. 

Quartermaster Grant and his brother officers, heartily 
amused at the mistake of his excellency, disclaimed any 
intention of appropriating his fair possessions. They even 
assured him that the keenest desire of their hearts was to 
get out of his dominions just as quick as steam could carry 
them, The ship was thorough] y fumigated and large quanti- 
ties of infected clothing, tents and knapsacks were destroyed. 
Finally, after a detention of eleven days, the Golden Gale 
sailed for San Francisco, and arrived there about the last of 
August. 

The young city then consisted chiefly of adobe houses, 



144 Stationed on the Columbia River. t 1853 - 

around the Plaza. Even Montgomery Street boasted only 
one or two brick and stone blocks. Times were flush, and 
immigrants from every nation thronged the streets. White 
sand-hills loomed up everywhere, their dust blinding the 
eyes. The regiment was placed in Benicia Barracks, a few 
hours' sail from San Francisco, where it was again detained 
four weeks by sickness. Panama fever had taken the place 
of cholera, and many more deaths occurred. 

On the sixteenth of September, the head-quarters, band, 
and five companies left Benicia by steamer. Six days later 
they reached Columbia Barracks, now Fort Vancouver, on 
the Columbia River, in Washington Territory— one of the 
loveliest spots in the world, among symmetric pines, 
spruces, and firs, whose trunks and branches are gorgeous 
with yellow moss. The fort stands on a pleasant bluff 
half a mile back from the most beautiful river of our 
continent. In front Mount Hood towers grandly. The 
bold mountain and the fair landscape at its feet are always 
enchanting, but especially so in the sparkling freshness of 
May or June. 

The buildings of the post erected by Quartermaster 
Rufus Ingalls, consisted of two-story barracks of lumber 
for the soldiers, and one-story log quarters, with balconies 
looking out upon the river, for the officers. 

The nearest civilization was a few miles away at Port- 
land, Oregon, then a little settlement in the woods with a 
single street of one-story frame houses. Thither went our 
martial heroes for dancing parties and other amusements, 
though through the winter they had clever theatricals at 
the garrison, which Grant keenly enjoyed. 

The neighboring land afforded excellent hunting of deer, 
elk, bears, and blue grouse, and the clear lakes abounded 
in ducks, geese, swans, and delicious trout. These luxuries, 
and the finest salmon in the world, caught in the Columbia, 
enabled the officers to fare sumptuously every day. 

Some parties were sent out against the Indians, but 
Grant's duties as regimental and post quartermaster, to 
which latter position he was appointed in the spring of 
1853, kept him at the fort. It was the depot of stores for 



1853.] Entertains George B. McClellan. 145 

interior and remote posts, and also for fitting out expe- 
ditions, and Lis work was much more absorbing than at 
any time since the Mexican war. 

As he had to receive and ship supplies, his residence 
was on the bank of the river, in a large two- story dwelling. 
It was sawed and framed in Boston, and carried around 
the Horn to California ": but in 1850 lumber grew so cheap in 
San Francisco that Quartermaster Robert Allen bought 
it for one thousand dollars, and shipped it to Ingalls. 
After paying for its transportation it was the cheapest, as it 
was the best house at the post. It was known as ' ' Quar- 
termaster' s Ranch." 

Here in April, 1853, arrived Lieutenant George B. 
McClellan, of the engineers, to survey the west end of a 
proposed Northern Pacific Railway. Grant was kept busy 
for some weeks in fitting out the expedition, and McClellan 
was his guest. The two young officers, who had known 
each other in Mexico, were thrown much together, eating at 
the same table, and sleeping under the same roof, for nearly 
three months. Did any suspicion ever stir their hearts of 
the high place which one was just to miss, and the other 
easily to gain ? 

The former drum-major of the Fourth relates that he was 
indebted to Grant for the unromantic but utilitarian gift of 
a sow. Pigs were pigs in that market, thanks to the 
wonderful development of California, and the recipient soon 
found himself the possessor of a small fortune obtained by 
selling a dozen at forty dollars apiece. An officer states 
that he and the quartermaster shipped potatoes and other 
produce to San Francisco, and sometimes obtained rich re- 
turns. 

Grant cared nothing for dancing, and very little for 
hunting. But he bought one of the finest horses in the 
Territory, and found his daily recreation in galloping 
through the beautiful woods. A brother officer writes : — 

" One morning while sitting with some comrades in front of the officers' 
quarters, we observed Grant riding on his fine horse toward Major Hatha- 
way's battery, which was in park about two hundred and fifty yards distant. 
As Grant drew near the guns, and we were observing the motions of his 

K 



14G "How Clear-Headed Sam Grant is," [1858. 

fine animal, we saw him gather the reins, take a tighter grip on his cigar, 
pull down his hat firmly on his head, and seat himself securely in the saddle. 
' Grant is going to leap the battery,' cried two or three of the officers, and 
we all stood up to see him do it. He ran his horse at the pieces, and put him 
over the four guns one after another as easily and gracefully as a circus rider." 

He remained at Fort Vancouver for more than a year, 
widely known and liked. His quarters were the temporary 
home of all visitors. He was an admirable host, and made 
his guests thoroughly welcome. There was always quiet 
enjoyment, and sometimes "boisterous hilarity at the quarter- 
master' s hearth, when old army friends, or favorite civilians, 
were there for a night. His comrades did not fail to notice 
the singular vividness and comprehensiveness with which 
he narrated the stirring engagements of the war, and how 
accurately his memory like an open book reproduced not 
detached incidents, but the action of the whole army as a 
unit — what it tried to do, what it accomplished or failed 
in, and what errors weakened its plan. After one of these 
talks, they would remark : — 

" How clear-headed Sam Grant is in describing a battle ! 
He seems to have the whole thing in his head." 

In August, 1853, he was promoted from a brevet captain 
to a full captain in his regiment, to fill a vacancy caused 
by the death of Captain Bliss, famous as Taylor's adjutant- 
general during the Mexican war. Early in October he 
started for Fort Humboldt, California, to take command of 
his company, F. Shortly after, during a visit to San Fran- 
cisco, in conjunction with three other officers, he leased the 
Union Hotel, on Kearny Street — now a part of the City 
Hotel — for a sort of club billiard-room, at iive hundred 
dollars per month. Subscriptions were obtained, and the 
enterprise might have been successful had the officers been 
better business men. Grant could not give it his personal 
attention ; agents were derelict or dishonest, and the rents 
did not come in. After advancing a good deal of money, 
he suffered as usual for believing other men as just and 
honest as himself, and the house was given up. The old 
lease is still preserved as one of the curiosities of San 
Francisco. 



1853.] a Captain at Foet Humboldt, California 147 

Grant spent several months commanding his company at 
Humboldt, a post two hundred and forty miles north of 
San Francisco, and seventy south of the Oregon line built 
for protection against the Indians. The barracks and offi- 
cers' quarters were of hewn timber, plastered within, and 
adorned with outside chimneys of stone. They stood on a 
plateau surrounded by pleasant prairies and dark woods 
of spruce and pine, and affording a splendid view of Hum- 
boldt Bay. 

The only town in the vicinity was Eureka, three miles 
from the fort. It was originally and accurately surveyed 
by James T. Ryan, with an instrument improvised of two 
vials and a bit of wood. Ryan had all the versatility which 
new countries bring to the surface. He wanted to build a 
saw-mill, but labor was high, and machinery scarce. So 
he bought the old steamer Santa Clara, and took her up the 
dangerous coast to the new city of Eureka. Just before 
starting his compass was stolen. He found a little river- 
compass, with the glass broken, and taking a pane from his 
pilot-house window, cut out a' circular piece with a pair of 
scissors while holding it under water, and fitted it into the 
top of his instrument, by the aid of which he ran his steamer 
safely into Humboldt Bay. Then raising her upon the 
ground without moving the machinery, he used her power to 
drive a saw-mill beside her, in which he employed sixty men 
and cut out eighty thousand feet of lumber per day. This 
ingenious and typicul pioneer was afterward elected a briga- 
dier-general of militia, and a member of the California Senate. 
In 1861 Senator McDougall thus introduced him to Abra- 
ham Lincoln : — 

"Mr. President, this is General Ryan, a loyal neigh- 
bor of mine, who can build a cathedral and preach in it, a 
ship and sail it, or an engine and run it," 

When Grant was at Fort Humboldt, Eureka consisted of 
Ryan' s mill and twenty houses. It was a pleasant situa- 
tion, and its hospitality made it a favorite resort for the 
officers. Ryan kept a barrel of whisky always on tap, and 
his well- furnished table was supplied with venison, ducks, 
geese, snipe, grouse, chicken, sweet milk, and biscuits of 



148 Living on the Fat of the Land. [is53. 

G-enesee Hour ; for in those days California obtained wheat 
limn New York instead of shipping her own to Gotham and 
even to London, China, and Japan. 

Communication with San Francisco was solely by water, 
and ships were from ten days to six weeks on the way. 
They brought mails without the least regularity. The offi- 
cers looked out anxiously every morning for a sail, and when 
one appeared, galloped down to Eureka for their letters or 
a stray newspaper. A number of Indians employed about 
the mill gave picturesqueness to the little town. Sometimes 
an evening was enlivened with a dance, when the few 
Women of the neighborhood were in great demand. 

Among Ryan's possessions was a horse called Eclipse, 
for which our captain had a special admiration. Twelve 
years Later, when Grant was at City Point, just before his 
final campaign, Ryan called on him, and found him with 
Sheridan and Sherman, their heads bent over a map. 
Grant, who never forgets an old acquaintance, instantly 
recognized him, inquired for his family, for the old saw-mill, 
and particularly for Eclipse, saying: — 

"He was the finest horse I ever saw west of the Rocky 
Mountains." 

An officer remembers that, asked how he liked the clams 
which abound there, Grant pronounced them "a first-rate 
substitute for gutta-percha oysters." 

He frequently visited his brother-in-law, Lewis Dent, 
who was running a ferry-boat at Knight's Ferry, on the 
Stanislaus River, and was at one time interested in that en- 
t< Tprist ), There are traditions in the neighborhood of Grant' s 
helping to run the boat, and once, when in a peculiarly 
jovial mood, of his appearing on the road driving three 
horses tandem at a spanking pace, with three buggies in long 
procession whirling after, to the amazement of the villagers. 
In truth, some relief seemed necessary, for life at Hum- 
boldt was insufferably dull. The line captain's duties were 
fewer and less onerous than the quartermaster's had been, 
and the discipline was far more rigid and irksome. No 
greater misfortune could have happened to him than 
this enforced idleness. He had little work, no family with 



1854 J Resigns and Returns Home. 149 

him, took no pleasure in the amusements of his brother offi- 
cers — dancing, billiards, hunting, fishing, and the like — and 
riding alone, however inspiriting, may grow monotonous 
after several months of it ! The result was a common one — 
he took to liquor. Not by any means in enormous quanti- 
ties, for he drank far less than other officers, whose reputa- 
tion for temperance was unsullied; but with his peculiar 
organization a little did the fatal work of a great deal. 
Like Cassio, he had very poor brains for drinking. The 
weakness did not legitimately belong to his character, for 
in all other respects he was a man of unusual self-control, 
and thoroughly master of his appetites. Who can tell 
whether subtle Nature grafts upon us a new trait, or trans- 
mits an old one from the fathers to the children to the third 
and fourth generation % Who can tell how far this had 
been acquired from the influences of boyhood and army 
life, and how far inherited from an ancestor, generations 
back % Our captain had not yet learned the truth which 
enabled him afterward to bring this propensity under abso- 
lute control — that total abstinence was the only safety for 
an organization like his. 

He' was guilty of no gross indecorum or misdeed ; but 
he fell so far under the influence of this insidious foe, that 
an intimation reached him that official notice would be taken 
of it, if he did not place his resignation in the hands of the 
commandant to be forwarded to Washington, at the first 
repetition of the offense. Grant received this information 
with his usual serenity. He was anxious to be once more 
with his family, and lie peremptorily and instantly declined 
to hold his commission by anybody's favor. He sent in 
his resignation to take effect July thirty-first, 1854, remark- 
ing to a friend : — "Whoever hears of me in ten years, will 
hear of a well -to-do old Missouri farmer." 

lie returned to New York, where he arrived forlorn and 
poor. Some brother officers at Governor's Island were glad 
to lend a little money to their old comrade in his ill fortune. 
He then went to Sackett's Harbor to find the former sutler 
of his regiment, who had received from him many personal 
and official favors, but who had suddenly sold out at Fort 



150 His Foetuses at a Low Ebb. [ 1854 - 

Vancouver and gone home, during Grant's temporary ab- 
sence, owing him sixteen hundred dollars of "borrowed 
money. He found this person, "but neither then nor after- 
ward recovered a cent of the debt. It wounded him very 
deeply — the treachery far more than the loss. The scurvy 
debtor was afterward an army officer, and in some sense at 
the mercy of Grant, whose indignation he feared. But the 
General was too large to wreak personal revenges, and never 
showed him special disfavor. 

The tide in the affairs of Captain Grant now seemed to 
have passed the flood which leads on to fortune, and to 
threaten that his future voyage should be 

"Bound in shallows and in miseries." 

It had certainly fallen to its lowest ebb. He returned to 
New York moneyless and disheartened. But he had 
written to his father, who immediately sent Simpson, the 
younger brother, to relieve his embarrassments. He reached 
home to find heartiest welcome. After several weeks in 
St. Louis, he and Mrs. Grant paid a visit to his father's at 
Covington, which lasted from September until the middle 
of November, and then they returned to Missouri. 

He was thirty-two years old, with a family to support 
and without any means except sound health, the stimulant 
of warm affection, and that indomitable and " equal mind" 
which dares Fortune to do her worst. 




^^ WHITEHAVEN-DENT FARM MRS. GRAN I S BIRTHPLACE 




CAl'T. CHANT'S KESIDENCE IN AND ABOUT ST. LOUIS. 



1854.] Four Years' Residence at Gravois. 151 



CHAPTER XI. 



FARMER. 



The autumn of 1854 Captain Grant passed with the 
Dents, then living on Walnut Street, St. Louis. The 
colonel, however, remained in charge of his farm and ne- 
groes at Gravois, where, before winter, his family and his 
son-in-law joined him. Here Grant remained four years, 
residing alternately in " Whitehaven," the old family man- 
sion, at " Wishtonwish," a pleasant little cottage erected by 
his brother-in-law Lewis Dent, and at " Hardscrabble," a log 
house which he himself had built. The Whitehaven farm 
is cut in twain by Gravois (rocky bed) Creek, from which 
the neighborhood takes its name. The long, low, spacious 
homestead, with its great stone chimneys at either end, its 
wide and hospitable porch, its whitewashed negro-quarters 
in the rear, and its barns of logs and stone, looks out from 
among tall locust and spruce trees upon broad, green mead- 
ows, sunny orchards, and sober woods. Three-quarters of 
a mile south stands Wishtonwish (Indian, whip-poor-will), 
a picturesque cottage, in a park of noble oaks ; and one 
mile northwest, Hardscrabble, where Grant made himself a 
home, and, carrying out his purpose, became "a steady- 
going farmer." Our views of the three places, all substan- 
tially unchanged since Grant lived upon them, are carefully 
copied from photographs. The others on the same page, 
showing the St. Louis residences, are also from photogi^hs, 
except the house on the corner of Seventh and Barton, 
which is from a sketch. 

Colonel Dent had given sixty acres of the Whitehaven 
tract to Julia and her husband. Here, in a pleasant grove 
of young oaks, the captain chose an elevated spot a hun- 
dred feet back from the road, as the site of his log dwelling, 
and here he reared his air-castle. JSTot very imposing archi- 



152 Builds a House and Hauls Wood. D^g. 

tectnre the latter— only a pleasant home, the loves that hal- 
low it, and the competence that provides for it. He hauled 

the stones for the cellar of his material habitation, the logs 
for its walls, and the shingles, which he had split with Ins 
own hands, for its roof. At the "raising," all the neigh- 
bors came with their negroes to assist, after the helpful 
custom of the new country. Grant had three or four 
slaves, given to his wife by her father, but they were more 
trouble than help to him. He was too kind-hearted to en- 
force unpaid and reluctant labor with severity. So he took 
the brunt of the work until his excellent constitution suf- 
fered seriousl}'. 

The life of a farmer was not all his fancy had painted it— 
by no means so comfortable as riding after the Cicotte mare, 
or ordering provisions for a little garrison. Though he 
raised two hundred bushels of potatoes to the acre, and pro- 
duced much wheat, which then commanded a high price, 
with quiet humor he named the little place " Hardscrabble ,: 
as an accurate description of his struggle to wrest a living 
from it. It was well stocked with tire-wood, which the ne- 
groes cut and loaded, while he hauled large quantities to St. 
Louis. 

Of course, he drove the best of horses ; and as one who 
knows a good beast is always merciful to it, he never rode on 
the loaded wagon, but trudged ten miles to market. "The 
horses," he would say, "have enough to draw without car- 
rying a lazy rider." His pet pair, a bay and a gray, 
he permitted nobody but himself to drive, and with them he 
would take seventy bushels of wheat to St. Louis. His 
boast was, that they could draw a heavier load than any 
other horses in the neighborhood. At first the adjacent 
farmers supposed it only a boast, but after working side 
by side with him they found that the captain was authority 
on horses. On the road, with invariable good-nature, he 
would frequently unhitch his own strong team to help 
neighbors or strangers out of the mud. Many leading St. 
Louis families bought their wood of Grant, and yet remem- 
ber how he threw off the loads at their doors, pocketed 
his money, mounted his wagon, and rattled briskly home- 



1856.] His Heart Warm toward Old Comrades. 153 

ward. Sometimes lie would discharge such a cargo at Jef- 
ferson Barracks — where he had been ou duty for a year as 
second lieutenant — and have a chat, a cigar, and a glass of 
wine with the officers when his work was finished. 

Hauling wood ten miles at four dollars a cord was not 
very remunerative, hut it was Grant' s easiest mode of making 
money. 

In the blue army overalls of a private soldier, a slouched 
hat, which had a tendency to turn up before and down be- 
hind, and heavy boots with pantaloons tucked into them, he 
was any thing but a fop, and guests at the Planters' House 
used to stare a little when he went in to dine with his 
friends. 

Toward old army comrades his heart warmed always. 
In general he was strictly temperate, though there are tradi- 
tions that once or twice meeting a brother officer of the 
Mexican war he sent his team home by the first negro he 
could find, and the two, making a night of it, went over their 
old conflicts, till each 

" Grew vain ; 
Fought all his battles o'er again ; 
And thrice he routed all his foes, and thrice he slew his slain." 

But these were rare exceptions. Coppee, a fellow-stu- 
dent at the Military Academy, relates one of the ordi- 
nary instances : — 

" Grant, with his whip in hand, once came to see me at the hotel where 
were Joseph J. Reynolds, then a Professor at West Point, D. C. Buell, and 
other officers. I remember that to our invitation to join us at the bar, he 
said : — " I will go and look at you ; but I never drink any thing myself." 

Officers frequently rode out to Hardscrabble to see him, 
and sometimes on the way down would meet him coming 
to town with a load of potatoes. Then he would turn back 
for a few pleasant hours at the farm with his old compan- 
ions in arms. 

In 1856, Mrs. Dent, the mother of his wife, died. Like 
. all her family, she had become greatly attached to her son- 
in-law, and she often spoke of an impressive dream which 



154 Visits his Brothers at Galena. [issg. 

she interpreted as indicating that he would one day rise to 
some very high position. 

During the same summer the tedium of the farmer's life 
was broken Toy a visit to Galena, where his brothers now 
carried on the tanning and leather business of their father. 
For several years before they succeeded to it, Jesse Grant 
and E. A. Collins had conducted it jointly, there and 
at Cincinnati. The dissolution of the old firm kindled 
anew Jesse's rhyming propensities, and he appended the 
following to the regular legal notice in the Galena papers :— 

"In Eighteen Hundred Forty- one 
Our partnership was first begun ; 
We two then became as one 

To deal in leather. 
Some little business we have done 

While together. 

" For a dozen years we've toiled together 
In making and in vending leather ; 
Suited to every stage of weather, 

E'en dry or rain ; 
But now a time has come to sever, 
And we are twain. 

"E. A. Collins is still on hand, 
And occupies his former stand, 
In which he alway held command, 

To buy or sell. 
As matters now are being planned 

May he do well. 

" J. R. Grant the old off-wheel, 
As quick and true as smitten steel, 
Doth still a strong desire feel 

To do some more. 
Expect then soon within the field 

A bran new store. 

" Our hearty thanks we humbly send 
To every customer and friend 
Who has stood by us to the end 

With free good will, 
And add, ' In future we intend 

To serve you well.' 



1856.] A Black Skin, but a Tkue Heart. 155 

" Now, one thing more we have to say 
To those who owe — ' We want our pay!' 
Then send it on without delay — 

The full amount; 
For still we have some debts to pay 

On firm account." 

Jesse, carrying out his boyish resolution, had retired from 
active business at sixty, leaving the affairs of the new store 
to Simpson and Orvil, with whom their brother now enjoyed 
a pleasant visit. 

After the captain' s return from Galena a second brother 
of Mrs. Grant's proposed to make the long, perilous over- 
land journey to the Pacific. One of the colonel 1 s negroes 
begged that he might be sent as a protector to " Young 
Mass'r John." Consent was given. Grant provided the 
outfit, and when a neighbor suggested that on reaching a 
free State George might leave " Mass'r John" to shift for 
himself, he replied : — 

" I don't know why a black skin may not cover a true 
heart as well as a white one. Besides, I have long ago 
tested George's intelligence and honesty, and I trust him 
thoroughly." 

George made the trip — a friend more than a servant — 
and in time was fully installed in charge of the business at 
Knight' s Ferry, in California, where he built him a cabin, 
married a squaw, and rapidly accumulated children and 
property. 

But the captain was not always so confident. One 
day, near a grocery, a neighbor' s negro beset him for ' ' a 
quarter." 

"For what?" 

" To buy me a paper of tobacco." 

Grant stepped in and bought the tobacco for the Afri- 
can. When asked why he had not given the money, he 
replied : — 

" Oh, Tooy would have spent that for whisky." 

On the day of the Presidential election in 1856, return- 
ing from St. Louis, where he had taken a load of corn, he 
passed, in his abstracted way, the polling-booth of his dis- 



156 Grant ■ Casts his First Vote. D 85G - 

trict ; but remembering presently what day it was, lie re- 
flected a moment. For Buchanan he had no admiration ; 
but then he was not altogether free from the army and slave- 
holding prejudice against abolitionists and against the 
Pathfinder, whose name just then was so stirring the hearts 
of the young men of the North. 

"I will go back," said he, "and vote against Fre- 
mont." 

So he tied his horses to a tree, walked back to the polls, 
and put in his ballot for the democratic ticket— the first 
vote of his life, and one of which he lived to be heartily 
ashamed. 

An old citizen declares, that in those days he could not 
have borrowed a hundred dollars in that country neighbor- 
hood. This may be an exaggeration of the fact that he was 
sorely straitened for money ; but he was neither penurious 
nor wanting in public spirit, For a poor widow in a neigh- 
boring county, who had been burned out and her children 
left without shelter, he raised, by personal effort, a sum 
sufficient to relieve her. And when asked to contribute for 
the building of a new church, he replied : — 

" I am very glad to ; we ought to have a comfortable 
place for preaching. I don't attend as much as I should, 
but Julia and the children do. We ought also to have a 
Sabbath-school in the neighborhood." 

While living at Wishtonwish one winter, he discov- 
ered that some interloper was cutting and carrying away 
wood from the Hardscrabble tract, two miles distant. On 
a bright moonlight night he started to catch the thief. 
While sitting upon a stump, he heard a team coming, and 
hid himself. A burly fellow, who rented a neighboring 
farm, stopped his horses within fifty feet of him, chopped a 
tree, cut it up, loaded it, and then started for the main road. 
Grant took a short cut, intercepted him, and accosted him 
with an air of surprise : — 

" Halloo, Bill! going to St. Louis with your wood, I 
suppose?" 
"Y— es." 
" How much do you ask for it f" 



1858.] ^ N ADVENTURE WITH A WOOD TlIIEF. 157 

" About four dollars." 

" Well, I'll take it. Bring it over to my house." 
" No ; I have promised it to a man in town." 
"But I must have it. Now there's no use in hesi- 
tating ; you must haul this load to my house, and pay 
me twenty dollars for what you have cut and carried 
away before. That won't be more than half price, you 
know. ' ' 

" If I don't, I suppose you'll sue me before the squire ?" 
" No, we won't trouble the squire or the public, but will 
settle the matter right here and now." 

And the captain, his sense of humor giving way to his 
indignation, sprang forward and seized by the collar the 
huge trespasser, who instantly cried : — 

"Hold on! I'll do it; but don't say a word to any- 
body." 

The wood was delivered, the money paid, and the thiev- 
ing discontinued. 

Grant's neighbors found him, though very sociable, silent 
about persons of whom he could not speak well. Often he 
kept his hearers sitting up until midnight around the wide- 
mouthed cheerful fireplace at Hardscrabble or Whitehaven, 
listening intently to his vivid narrations of army expe- 
riences. Though exceedingly amiable, and ready to give 
or take a joke, he was possessed of a certain dignity which 
made it impossible to impose upon or be too familiar with 
him. 

He was called the most industrious farmer in the whole 
country. His hands had grown hard and horny, and his 
frame rheumatic and bent, as if from premature old age. 
Yet in these four years he had been unable to " make both 
ends meet," and his father had advanced him some two 
thousand dollars. Farming was a failure, and it was time to 
find some other employment. 

Harry Boggs, an intimate friend who, with his wife, 
a niece of Colonel Dent's, had been present at Grant's 
wedding, was in business in St. Louis as a real estate agent 
and collector. One day in the autumn of 1858, Grant, 
while in the city with a load of corn, met Boggs and said :— 



158 Grant and Boggs form a Partnership. ps58. 

"The old gentleman is trying to persuade me to go into 
business with some one, and he speaks of you. He thinks 
I could soon learn the details, and that my large acquaint- 
ance among army officers would bring enough additional 
customers to make it support both our families." 

" I have worked hard to build it up," replied Boggs, 
' ' and I do not want a partner unless he can increase it, 
but I think you can. Come and see me the next time you 
are in town." 

Then, like a wise man, Boggs consulted his wife. She 
favored the project, thinking that from the large circle of 
Grant's and her uncle's friends the patrons would be 
largely re-enforced. So Grant and Boggs agreed upon a 
partnership. 



1859.] 



Grant Lives in Camp Style. 



159 



CHAPTER XII. 



REAL ESTATE AGENT. 



On the first of January, 1859, the new firm began. The 
partners knew each other so well that no written agreement 
was necessary. No change was made in the office, but 
the little sign at the door was changed to correspond to the 
new style, and this business card was issued : — 



X. BOGGS. 



XT. S. GROT. 



BOGGS & GRANT, 



COLLECT KEOTS. NEGOTIATE LOANS. BUY AND SELL EEAL 
ESTATE, ETC., ETC. 

2sro- as zpukte street, 

Between Second and Third, 

8JL1NT ROTTXS, MO, 



At first, Grant left his family at Hardscrabble. He 
could not afford quarters at a hotel or even at a boarding- 
house, but Boggs, who lived at two hundred and nine South 
Fifteenth Street, had an unfurnished room which he was in- 
vited to occupy. He lived in it in genuine camp style. There 
was no carpet, and a bedstead with one mattress and a 
wash-bowl standing upon a chair were the only furniture. 
Here Grant remained for two months, taking his breakfasts 
and suppers at the house, and on Saturday nights walking 



160 Conducts Business in Boggs' s Absence, [issa. 

out to Hardscrabble. He was always at his city home of 
an evening, and was very quiet and companionable. 

Early in the spring he sold at auction his farming 
tools and stock and rented Hardscrabble. Then he re- 
moved to St. Louis, and took up his residence in a little 
frame house on the corner of Seventh and Lynch Streets. 
It was near the river, not altogether a pleasant neighbor- 
hood, but the rent was only twenty-five dollars per month. 

The old office of Boggs and Grant yet stands— though in 
the changed numbering it is now designated as two hundred 
and nineteen — in Pine Street, one of the narrow St. Louis 
thoroughfares which unfortunately have never been burned 
out and widened since the old French rule. The law-firm oc- 
cupied the entire lower floor of the ancient brick dwelling, 
of which we present an accurate view. It consisted of two 
large rooms, connected by folding doors. Beside a front 
window looking out on the street, stood the desk of Boggs & 
Grant. Here, talking through the open window with cus- 
tomers on the side-walk, Boggs negotiated many a loan 
and heard the gossip of many a summer afternoon. The 
projecting sign bore the words: "Boggs & Grant. Real 
Estate Agency. Money loaned on Heal Estate security." 

Boggs, who had a good many houses to rent, and a good 
many tenants to collect of, inducted his new partner into the 
business by taking him about town and introducing him 
to all the leading customers. Then, at the suggestion of 
Colonel Dent, he left Grant to look after the business while 
he visited Philadelphia, where, as a young man, he had 
resided for many years and formed acquaintances among 
wealthy citizens. Money in Philadelphia was worth but 
five or six per cent., while in St. Louis ten per cent, was 
legal interest and fifteen often the current rate. 

He succeeded in effecting an arrangement with one capi- 
talist in Philadelphia and another in New York to let the firm 
have four hundred thousand dollars at eight per cent., to 
loan out in small sums secured on real estate. Returning to 
St. Louis early in March, in excellent spirits, he advertised 
that Boggs & Grant were ready to advance money on real 
estate at ten per cent., the borrower paying the two per 



1859 ] Suffers from Ague and Rheumatism. 161 

cent, additional to cover expenses of examining titles and 
negotiating the loan. 

Like all advertisements which offer money instead of 
asking it, this brought hundreds of applicants, but the 
firm rejected some as unsafe, and the attorneys of the East- 
ern capitalists — who, it was agreed, must be satisfied with 
the securities — refused to accept others. The end of the 
promising scheme was that Boggs & Grant made about 
enough out of it to pay the expenses of the senior partner s 
eastern trip. 

The captain engaged in the new business with all his 
energy, though incapacitated somewhat for the first four 
months by ague and rheumatism which he brought from 
Hardscrabble. Often, during the spring afternoons, his 
" chill" would come on, and so weaken him that McClellan 
or Hillyer had to support him to the Third Street omnibus, 
by which he rode homeward. 

Boggs, on his return, found that Grant had diligently 
collected the rents, and let all the vacant houses to good 
tenants, except one, in which a plausible but undesirable 
woman had established herself. She was afterward got rid 
of only by the combined and persistent efforts of the land- 
lord and the two agents. 

If Grant ever neglected his duties, it was when he called 
upon some army officer with a bill for rent. Then he some- 
times would light his cigar, discuss for an afternoon the old 
campaigns, and quite forget that he was junior partner in 
the firm of Boggs & Grant, real estate agents, with an un- 
receipted bill for rent in his pocket. 

His quickness at figures was of great service to Boggs 
when a customer stopped at the window to get a note dis- 
counted at a trifle higher than the legal rate. Nevertheless, 
the senior partner, from the serene heights of long business 
experience, rather looked down upon the junior, who care- 
fully performed a clerk's duties, and meekly accepted a 
round scolding when of a morning, as sometimes happened, 
he was late at the office. Occasionally it would be ten or 
eleven o'clock before he took his place at the desk, pleading 
in extenuation that Mrs. Grant, who had several children to 

L 



162 Trades Off Hardscrabble. [i859. 

care for, was late with the breakfast. The "scrabble" in 
town was quite as hard as it had been in the country. A 
lady, whose husband had requested her to call on Mrs. 
Grant, asked on her return : — 

' ' Why did you send me there ? The house is shabbily 
furnished, and they must be very poor." 

The husband replied that Grant was a most estimable 
gentleman, though with little business capacity. On fur- 
ther acquaintance she became devotedly attached to Mrs. 
Grant, and formed a friendship which still continues. 

Grant traded Hardscrabble with an attache of the Court- 
House for a frame cottage on the corner of Ninth and Barton 
Streets, with a high roof and pleasant overhanging shade- 
trees. To this dwelling, then quite in the outskirts of the 
town, he removed in July, 1859, and occupied it during the 
remainder of his residence in St. Louis. 

When Grant took the house, there was a mortgage upon 
it for fifteen hundred dollars, which the former owner as- 
sumed, giving as security a deed of trust on Hardscrabble. 
A year* or two later, when the deed fell due, he failed to pay 
it ; so Grant was compelled to sue for the recovery of Hard- 
scrabble, and several years of litigation followed. After 
Donelson and Vicksburg, when the case was in court in 
St. Louis, an old woman who had lived near by was on the 
witness stand. In reply to questions, she stated in detail 
who had lived in this house. One year it was Jones, the 
next Smith, and so on. 

" Who lived in it in 1859 V asked the lawyer : — 

" Some man by the name of Grant," she replied. 

" Do you know where he is now f 

" I think he is somewhere in the war. It seems to me I 
have heard of him there." 

So great was the law's delay, that only in 1867 did 
Grant recover Hardscrabble. He now owns it, and has 
also bought Wishtonwish and the Whitehaven house, with 
six hundred acres of the old place. 

The earnest captain tried hard for success in business. 
He dressed plainly, and walked in and out of the busy 
office without attracting any attention. The three attorneys 



1859.] How his Friends Regarded Him. 163 

thought him laboring under some special depression of 
spirits. His eyes, always sad, were then unusually so. 
His favorite theme was still the battles he had fought, but 
he related them in a matter-of-fact way, without the least 
halo of imagination or romance. He was minutely ac- 
quainted with the Italian war then in progress. He studied 
newspapers, pored over maps, and frequently said : — 

"This movement was a mistake. If I commanded the 
army, I would do thus and so." 

The attorneys would smile, and think it of veiy little 
consequence what their humble acquaintance would do 
under such impossible circumstances. They did not believe 
much in village Hampdens, or mute inglorious Miltons, but 
they enjoyed his chat. When night came, he would not go 
home as long as any one remained to talk or listen. 

Hillyer and he discussed politics a good deal, for an 
anti-slavery controversy was raging in the slave State of 
Missouri. Hillyer 1 s sympathies were republican, Grant's 
democratic. Hillyer, quick and fluent, would lead his op- 
ponent off to side issues, but Grant, following slowly, 
always brought him back to the main question, and held 
him to it tenaciously. 

The firm did not make enough to support two families. 
Grant's friends were glad to lend him money, for his gen- 
uineness and uprightness had won greatly upon them ; but 
still they looked upon him in that patronizing way with 
which egotistic Success is wont to regard modest and be- 
wildered Unpracticality. They thought him a little out of 
place on this bustling sphere — one of the " people such as 
hang on the world' s skirts rather than actually belong to 
it." Still they were a good deal drawn to him, and ear- 
nestly hoped— the most ambitious hope they had for him — 
that some day he might succeed in earning a good liveli- 
hood. 

The partners had many conferences upon their affairs, 
and Grant saw the necessity for some change. Just then 
the county engineership of St. Louis became vacant. It was 
a post worth nineteen hundred dollars a year, and one for 
which Grant's West Point education rendered him thor- 



164 Applies fop* the County Engineership. t 1859 - 

oughly competent. Therefore lie determined to get it, and 
thus increase the revenues of the firm. The appointment 
rested with the county commissioners, to whom he wrote 
the following business-like application :— 



'&Co>€*J— <^% ^tX^/^^yC 




tfU; £^r^ a^ty^^e^^^C' /f£r~ ^£^ 









A'V?^ -^Y^i^u^ -Z<^-z^ <^Z^t^&C^ &&10~l«c£^ 




1859.] INDORSEMENTS OX THE APPLICATION. 1G5 










This document is still preserved among tlie records of 
the county. On the "back it bears these indorsements — the 
first official, the rest exuberant : — 

" Application of U. S. Grant to be appointed County Engineer. Rejected. 
Attest, S. "W. Eagar, Jr., 

Sec. Board of St. Louis Co. Commissioners." 

" Xote. — The within-named Captain U. S. Grant is now a Major-General 
in the United States Army, and is in command of the Department of the 
Tennessee. September, 186:2. *' 

" Nbta Bene.-^C&pt. U. S. Grant is now Lientenant-General of the United 
States, and the highest officer in the service. May 25, 1864." 

" The hero of Vicksburg." 

" Captured Richmond, April, 1865." 

" Captured the whole Rebel array, 1865." 

" General United States Army, 1866." 



166 



a 



Leading Citizens" who Seconded it. 



[1859. 



One inscription more remains to be made before the 
record of Grant's official positions under the republic is 
complete. 

The appended recommendation ran thus : — 

The undersigned take pleasure in recommending Captain U. S. Grant as 
a suitable person for County Engineer of St. Louis County. 

August 1, 1859. 



N. J. Eaton, 
Jno. P. Helfenstein, 
F. Overstoltz, 
L. A. Benoist, 
Jas. M. Hughes, 
Lemuel G. Pardee, 
James C. Moody, 
Felix Coste, 

C. S. Purkitt, 

J. Addison Barret, 

D. M. Frost, 

Ed. Walsh, 



Robt. M. Renick, 
Robt. J. Hornsby, 
G. W. Fishback, 
J. McK night, 
J. O'Fallon, 
John F. Darby, 
Thos. E. Tutt, 
T. Grim si ey, 
S. B. Churchill, 
J. M. Mitchell, 
J. G. McClellan, 



Chas. A. Pope, 
W. S. Hillyer, 
Wm. L. Pipkin, 
K. McKenzie, 
Baman & Co., 
C. W. Ford, 
A. S. Robinson, 
Geo. W. Moore, 
R. A. Barnes, 
Thos. Marshall, 
John Horn, 



Taylor Blow. 



All the signers were prominent citizens ; many afterward 
became rebels. Tutt was a leading merchant ; Blow, a 
wholesale druggist ; Benoist & Co., an old family of bank- 
ers ; Pope, an eminent surgeon ; Robinson, a bank cashier ; 
McKenzie, a well-known Scotch settler, formerly of the 
Hudson Bay Company ; Ford, local superintendent of the 
United States Express ; Fishback, editor of the St. Louis 
Democrat ; Coste, executor of the estate of Bryan Mullan- 
phy, an eccentric Irish citizen, who left three-quarters of a 
million of dollars for the benefit of immigrants passing 
through St. Louis ; and Frost, an ex-captain, whom Grant 
had known in the army. He, it was, who just after the Re- 
bellion began, was captured with his camp of Confederates 
near St. Louis by General Nathaniel Lyon. He is now a 
reconstructed rebel farmer residing near the city. Ford and 
Fishback are still in their old positions. Hillyer, of the law- 
firm, was on Grant 1 s staff during the war, rose to the rank 
of brigadier-general, and is now connected with the Internal 
Revenue in New York. Moody was Hillyer 1 s partner, after- 
ward a circuit judge, impeached by the Missouri Legisla- 



1859 -] Why it was Unsuccessful. 167 

ture for some construction of law which it reprobated. 
McClellan was of the same firm, and is still practicing his 
profession just across the street from the old office. 

Grant's friends worked hard for him, and his class- 
mate, J. J. Reynolds, sent in the strongest assurances of 
his fitness. His claims were duly canvassed by the com- 
missioners, but politics determined almost every thing. 
There were five members of the board — Lightner, Taussig, 
and Farrar, republicans, and Easton and Tippet, demo- 
crats. Grant, from his political antecedents, was supposed 
to have democratic proclivities, for in those days there was 
more truth than satire in the witticism which defined an 
"old whig," as "one who takes his whisky regularly, 
and votes the democratic ticket occasionally." 

There was no other special objection to him. His ability 
as an engineer was accorded. He was not much known, 
though the commissioners had occasionally seen him about 
town, a trifle shabby in dress, with pantaloons tucked in 
his boots. They supposed him a good office man, but 
hardly equal to the high responsibility of keeping the 
roads in order. He might answer for a clerk, but in this 
county engineership talent and efficiency were needed ! 

There was another applicant, C. E. Salomon, a brother 
of Governor Salomon of Wisconsin. He was a German, 
known to be a good surveyor, and frequently seen at 
his professional work. His superior activity was an advan- 
tage, and he was also strongly pressed by the German 
citizens who cast more than half the entire vote of the 
county. Grant stood second in the estimation of the com- 
missioners, though there were many other applicants. But 
Salomon quite overshadowed him, and the record shows 
the result : — 

"September 22, 1859. Ordered by the board, that C. E. Salomon be, 
and he is hereby appointed County Engineer; to hold until otherwise 
ordered by this board, at a salary of one hundred and sixty dollars per 
month." 

The vote stood three for Salomon, two for Grant. During 
the war Salomon became colonel of one of the German reg- 
iments, and fought under Lyon at Springfield. He still 



168 Boggs and Grant Dissolve Partnership. [i859. 

liolds tlie county engineership. Grant believes that liis 
failure to get it was most fortunate ; that if lie had obtained 
it, he might, perhaps, have plodded along until now, in 
the St. Louis court-house. But his disappointment was 
bitter. Nineteen hundred dollars per annum was the purse 
of Fortunatus to the modest captain, and, with unusual 
earnestness, he longed for the position. The obtaining of it 
would have gladdened his heart far more than the General- 
ship or the Presidency in later years. It was not a ques- 
tion of personal feeling, but of making sure provision for 
the loved ones at home. 

This project failing, in September, after a life of less than 
nine months, the firm of Boggs & Grant, real estate agents 
and money lenders, came to an untimely end. 



1860. j The Captain Disappointed Again. 1G9 



CHAPTER XIII. 

THE LEATHER STOEE. 

Captain Grant next obtained a temporary position in 
the St. Louis custom-house, hut in less than a month the 
collector died, and he was again out of employment. 
Through the fall and winter he sought work in many 
places, but found it nowhere. These were dark days, but 
he bore them calmly and patiently. Early in the new year, 
he sent in this second application for the engineership, 
based on a current rumor : — 

" St. Louis, February 13, 18 GO. 
"President County Commissioners: — 

'* Sir : Should the office of county engineer be vacated by the will of your 
honorable body, I would respectfully renew the application made by me in 
August last for that appointment. I would also beg leave to refer you to 
the application and recommendations then submitted, and on file with your 
board. 

"I am, sir, respectfully, your obedient servant, U. S. Grant." 

But the vacancy did not occur, and he was destined to 
live no longer in St. Louis. Now, his old acquaintances 
are fond of talking of the shy, unpractical man, whose 
future they so little suspected, but whose slightest words 
they recall with keen interest. One lady remembers his 
almost girlish fondness for her flower-garden, a taste which 
he has manifested through his entire life. 

He never told coarse stories and was never profane. 
His strongest language was the pointless Western impre- 
cation, "Dog on it," or the mild oath, "By lightning." 
The restraining influence of his mother's teachings, oper- 
ated so powerfully that he has never uttered an oath in 
his life. At least his nearest friends assert this with so 
much emphasis and unanimity that I think the solitary 
exception already related must be fabulous. He says : — "I 



170 Visits his Father at Covingtok. [i860. 

always disliked to liear anybody swear except Rawlins." 
Old army comrades who remember the peculiarly vigorous 
and eloquent anathemas of the chief of staff will under- 
stand the exception. 

In one respect had Grant been specially fortunate. Dur- 
ing all these years of poverty and struggle, his wife brought 
to him that utter devotion, sympathy, faith, and love of a 
sweet, true-hearted woman, which has buoyed up so many 
a sufferer weighed down by heavy burdens. Her tender- 
ness and fidelity were so warmly returned, that she looks 
back on their life in St. Louis as one of exceeding happi- 
ness. 

They had now four little mouths to feed ; so, in the 
spring of 1860, Grant paid a visit to his father, at Coving- 
ton, Kentucky, to discuss his future. For six years Jesse 
had left the chief conduct of his Galena business in the 
hands of Simpson and Orvil, though he still owned it, 
and the name of the house stood "J. R. Grant." To the 
brothers the father referred the case of Ulysses. They offered 
him a place in the store at an annual salary of six hundred 
dollars for the present. If he liked and proved useful, 
Jesse intended to give him an interest, but not so large 
a one as to his brothers, who had assisted in building up 
the concern. 

The father had already gratified his ambition for a com- 
petency. Six years later he found himself worth one hun- 
dred thousand dollars, and determined to make over his 
property to his children. Ulysses desired none of it, in- 
sisting that he had done nothing toward accumulating it, 
and that the Government had provided amply for him. So 
Jesse only gave one thousand dollars each to the children of 
Ulysses, to aid in educating them, and divided the remain- 
der between his other surviving sons and daughters. In his 
seventy -fifth year, he still resides in Covington, where he 
is postmaster of the city, and gives daily personal attention 
to the duties of his office. He weighs a hundred and ninety 
pounds, is broad-shouldered and erect, has straight brown 
hair, shaggy eyebrows, full overhanging forehead, and a 
fringe of silvery-brown whiskers. He is a little deaf in one 



i 860 -] Settles in Galena, Illinois. 171 



ear, and his eyesight is failing, but he is singularly clear- 
headed, and remembers dates with perfect minuteness. 
With good opportunities in boyhood, he would have 
become prominent and influential in public affairs. 

In March, I860, Ulysses removed to Galena, Illinois, on 
the Galena River, four miles above its junction with the 
Mississippi. The little city of six or seven thousand people 
has a curious Swiss look. The river cuts it in twain, and 
the narrow and crowded main street threads the valley, 
while on the north side a bluff rises like a roof for two 
hundred feet. 

Upon the summit, and in terraces along the side, perch 
most of the residences. One ascends to them by wooden 
steps, leaving the top of the tallest spire far below. 

Galena, in the midst of the richest lead region in the 
world, underlying half a dozen counties of Illinois, Iowa, 
and Wisconsin, had fourteen thousand inhabitants a quarter 
of a century ago. Then all the lead was brought to the 
city to be shipped ; people and wagons crowded the nar- 
row streets, and a Tower of Babel went up in the form of 
an enormous brick hotel, containing two hundred rooms. 
Its owners, who named it the De Soto House, builded rasher 
than they knew. If the ghostly form of De Soto stalks 
through its deserted halls, they must remind him of the pri- 
meval quiet which he found on reaching the Mississippi. The 
intrusive railway, giving to half a dozen little stations equal 
facilities for shipping lead, has cut down the magnificent 
expectations of Galena, and left her far behind Dubuque, 
Iowa, nineteen miles distant, and on the other side of the 
Mississippi. 

Near Galena, in early days, Winfield Scott, Jefferson 
Davis, Albert S}^dney Johnston, David E. Twiggs, and 
other well-known army officers, were frequently stationed. 
E. D. Baker, the Oregon senator, who was killed at the head 
of his regiment at Ball's Bluff in 1861, and William H. 
Hooper, Congressional delegate from Utah, were both old 
residents of the vicinity. At Hazel Green, Wisconsin, ten 
miles north, sleeps James G. Percival, the modest and lov- 
able poet, the accomplished linguist and savant. 



172 A Clerk in the Leather Store. D 8G <>- 

Grant's father-in-law, Colonel Dent, was likewise famil- 
iar with Galena in early days, and erected one of the very 
first buildings. He traded with the miners, supplied the 
military posts above with provisions, and ascended to the 
Falls of St. Anthony on the first steamer which ever ven- 
tured up to that point, Indian warriors, squaws, papooses, 
and dogs, on the approach of the boat, fled to the nearest 
American fort, and reported that an evil spirit, belching fire 
and smoke, was coming to destroy them. 

Grant took the little dwelling shown in our picture. It 
is on the top of a picturesque bluff, and he had to climb 
stairs two hundred feet high every time he went home from 
the store. The leather-house had a capital of one hundred 
thousand dollars, and its annual business reached the same 
amount. It dealt in shoe-findings, saddlery hardware, 
French calf, fancy linings, and morocco, all bought in 
the East, and in domestic leather tanned in the chestnut 
oak-woods of Ohio, from hides purchased in Galena. 

The captain cheerfully began his new duties. He wore 
a rough working dress and his favorite slouched hat, and 
smoked a clay pipe incessantly. He was temperate in 
every thing else, for he had totally abstained from drink for 
several years. He was courteous and popular with all 
who met him on business, but never sought acquaintances. 
He was a very poor salesman, could not chaffer, and did 
not always know the price of an article. So, whenever a 
difficult or an important customer was to be dealt with, 
Orvil, Simpson, or one of the clerks took him in charge. 

He weighed leather for filling orders, and bought hides, 
which he frequently unloaded and carried into the store 
on his shoulders. One day Rowley, clerk of the Circuit 
Court, sent down for leather to cover a desk in his office. 
The captain walked up to the court-house with the leather 
on his back, measured it, cut it, and tacked it on. A year 
and a half later, Grant was a major-general in the field, 
and Rowley a captain on his staff. 

During one of the periodic depressions of western cur- 
rency, the house bought pork and shipped it to New York 
to pay Eastern bills, and save the enormous price of ex- 



r> m, r> 



•> o 



CZJ^&l 






. f^W-wi VfQtdffls<i rati n 
w ra Jira pit " ra ■sa is 



^ 






r 



3'S'fii Bf Si 5 B 







RESIDENCE 

CAPT. GRANT IN GALENA. 1860-61. 



GALENA 1860-1. 



i860.] A. Hard Struggle for a Living. 173 

change. One day some farmers, who had brought a load of 
pork, asked for gold instead of notes, to pay their taxes. 
The clerk offered it at a rate which Grant thought exorbi- 
tant, so he suggested that they go to the bank and learn 
the current premium. The result was that they saved 
twelve dollars. Could such a man be expected to succeed 
in trade % 

In truth, Grant felt out of place. The life was distaste- 
ful to him. Jesse spent a few weeks in Galena every year, 
but the business was mainly in the hands of Orvil, thirteen 
years the 3 r ounger, a fact which could not have been 
pleasant to the elder brother. An old neighbor remarks : — 

" Though very unnoticeable he attended to business faith- 
fully and talked a great deal, but always about places that 
he had seen — never of what he had read. His conversation 
was entertaining, but fact, and not fancy, interested him." 

"I first encountered him," says another, " coining down 
the hill toward the store with Orvil. He wore a blue over- 
coat and old slouched hat, and looked like a private soldier. 
He had not more than three intimates in the whole town." 

The bread and butter question was still a serious one. 
The rent of the dwelling was only one hundred and twenty- 
live dollars per annum. Much of the time Mrs. Grant had 
no servant, but took the whole care of her house and the 
four children. Her husband had no extravagant habits ; 
though not naturally frugal, he was now so perforce. 
Still, the six hundred dollars a year proved utterly in- 
adequate to support him. It was raised to eight hundred, 
but even upon this he was unable to live. The want 
of money hampered him, and he went to the war con- 
siderably in debt, but paid every dollar from his earliest 
earnings in the army. 

Who will ever forget the autumn of I860 — the Presiden- 
tial campaign which stirred every county in the Union and 
proved the last before the great rebellion. The Lead Re- 
gion was thoroughly alive. Galena, — a democratic city, — 
was in the strongest republican Congressional district of 
the United States. Elihu B. Washburne, a leading public 
man of the Northwest had been its representative for 



174 Grant is a Douglas Democrat, [ 18 eo. 

three years, "but Captain Grant Ms townsman, was so incon- 
spicuous a citizen that Washburne did not even know 
Mm. 

Two of the four Presidential candidates being popular 
Illinoisans, there were practically but two parties in that 
State— the Lincoln and the Douglas party. Each little town 
had its Douglas club, and its "Wide- Awake" or republi- 
can club. The Galena Wide-Awakes selected for their 
captain, John E. Smith, an old militia officer. 

The Douglas club, delighted that Grant's sympathies 
were democratic, while his father and brother were both 
radical republicans, and also desiring the benefit of his pro- 
fessional training, elected him captain, but he absolutely 
declined to serve, alleging that he had not been long enough 
in Illinois to vote, and also that he wished to attend to 
business, and not meddle in politics. 

One evening, chancing to be in the hall where the Wide 
Awakes were drilling, he instructed them for a few minutes 
on the invitation of their captain. This was the only 
active part he took in the canvass, but his proclivities were 
decidedly for Douglas. Before the end of the campaign, 
that candidate made a speech in Dubuque, and Grant went 
to hear him. After returning, he was silent, until asked : — 

" How did you like Judge Douglas ?" 

" He is a very able, at least a very smart man," replied 
Grant, "but I can't say I like Ids ideas. If I had the legal 
right to vote I should be more undecided than ever." 

His friends inferred that he thought he detected some un- 
fairness or demagoguery. At all events, after this his sym- 
pathies tended toward republicanism. Rowley tried to 
convince him that he was a legal voter, as, computing his 
residence from the day he arrived alone from St. Louis, he 
had been in Illinois a }^ear ; but dating from his arrival 
with his family, it was less. Orvil interrupted : — 

' ' Now you had better let Ulysses alone. If he were to 
vote he wouldn't vote our ticket." 

"I don't know about that," replied the captain; "I 
don't quite like the position of either party. I never voted 
but once, and that was against Fremont." 



I860.] B UT is CONVEETED TO REPUBLICANISM. 175 

"You ought to "be ashamed of having voted for Bu- 
chanan." 

" I didn't ; I voted against Fremont. I thought it would 
"be a misfortune for the country if he should be elected. 
Otherwise I have never meddled with politics." 

The election came. A party of young republicans sat 
up to receive the returns by telegraph, and before midnight 
learned that Abraham Lincoln had been chosen President. 
Then they had a jollification at the leather store. The 
captain assisted his brothers to play the host, dispensing 
oysters and liquors, of which all except him partook. He 
seemed as much gratified as any one at the result, and from 
that time was regarded by his friends as a moderate re- 
publican. 

Through the exciting winter which followed the election, 
Grant manifested far more interest in public affairs than ever 
before, and was positive in his condemnation of the inde- 
cision and imbecility of President Buchanan. In Decem- 
ber, he wrote a letter, of course not designed ever to be 
made public, but from which I can not resist the temptation 
to take two or three extracts, as showing his personal hopes 
and his views on public affairs, expressed in the full frank- 
ness of intimate friendship : — 

"In my new employment I have become pretty conversant, and am 
much pleased with it. I hope to be a partner soon, and am sanguine that a 
competency at least can be made out of the business. 

"How do you all feel on the subject of Secession in St. Louis? The 
present troubles must affect business in your trade greatly. With us the 
the only difference experienced as yet is the difficulty of obtaining Southern 
exchange. 

"It is hard to realize that a State or States should commit so suicidal an 
act as to secede from the Union, though from all the reports, I have no doubt 
but that at least five of them will do it. And then, with the present granny 
of an executive, some foolish policy will doubtless be pursued which will 
give the seceding States the support and sympathy of the Southern States 
that don't go out. The farce now going on in southern Kansas is, I presume, 
about at an end, and the St, Louis volunteer General Frost at their head, 
covered all over with glory. You will now have seven hundred men more 
in your midst, who will think themselves entitled to live on the public 
for all future time. You must provide office for them, or some of them may 
declare Missouri out of the Union. It does seem as if just a few men have 



176 Disturbed about Public Affairs. D 8 go. 

produced all the present difficulty. I don't see why by the same rule a few 
hundred men could not carry Missouri out of the Union." 

Business was dull. In the daytime, friends lounged in 
the store, and during the long winter evenings there were 
euchre parties, at which Grant smoked his pipe, but not 
with his usual serenity. The national troubles weighed 
upon his mind, and he expressed gravest apprehensions for 
the future. A friend suggested : — 

' ' There' s a great deal of bluster about the Southerners, 
but I don't think there's much fight in them." 

" Rowley," replied Grant, earnestly, "you are mis- 
taken ; there is a good deal of bluster ; that' s the result of 
their education ; but if they once get at it they will make a 
strong fight. You are a good deal like them in one respect 
— each side under-estimates the other and over-estimates 
itself." 

Few in either section believed that there was serious 
business at hand. The North thought the South would not 
fight, because it blustered so much ; the South thought the 
North would not, because it blustered so little. Our san- 
guine theorists believed that the diffusion of civilization and 
Christianity had turned the swords into plowshares — that 
hereafter diplomacy, and not war, was to be the final arbiter 
in great disputes. Our republicans laughed at conserva- 
tives, who had long been crying " Wolf, wolf !" and made 
"Union-saving" — because always synonymous with some 
dishonorable concession to slavery — a term of reproach. 
Conservatives replied with a feebleness which seemed to 
indicate that even they did not believe much in their own 
f<>ars. There was a portentous hush and expectancy. It 
was the quiet that presages the earthquake. 



13GL] FoET StDITEE IS FlEED OX. 177 



CHAPTER XIV. 

THE LONG EOLL. 

The embers so long smoldering blazed at last. On 
Friday, April twelfth, 1861, came news that South Carolina 
rebels had attacked Fort Sumter. Then, with clinched lips 
and flashing eyes, Galena, like the rest of the North, waited 
the issue for two days. 

Monday, the fifteenth, brought intelligence of the cap- 
ture of the little fortress. The "wolf" had come, and side 
by side old fearers and old scoffers sprang up to drive 
him away. The prairies were on fire. In Galena business 
was suspended. At the leather store, thronging visitors 
from town and country all talked of the one theme. The 
quiet captain had never been so excited. His conversation 
was no longer of horses, or adventures in the Mexican war. 
He said : — 

"I thought I had done with soldiering. I never ex- 
pected to be in military life again. But I was educated by 
the Government ; and if my knowledge and experience can 
be of any service, I think I ought to offer them." 

The next evening a meeting was called at the large stone 
court-house. Before the gathering, the town was paraded by 
a band of musicians, bearing the Stars and Stripes. Every- 
where they were received with enthusiastic cheers ; for it 
had just dawned upon the people that the American flag 
was something more than a pretty plaything— that it was 
the symbol of national unity and free government — of 
the fruition of all that the fathers hoped, struggled, and 
died for. 

Among others on the way to the meeting was John A. 
Rawlins, a young Galena lawyer, of humble birth and self- 
education. Though recently admitted to the bar, he had 
already gained a large practice, and was the most popular 

M 



178 Meeting in the Galena Couht-House. [isei. 

man in liis Congressional district. In the Presidential cam- 
paign, just ended, he had been the Douglas candidate for 
elector; and in "stumping" with his republican competi- 
tor, he had won high reputation as a popular orator. 

Douglas was the leader, the very soul of the North- 
western democracy, and as yet Douglas had not been heard 
from. Friends said to Kawlins : — 

" It is an abolition fight ; do not mix in ; if you do, you 
will injure our party." 

" I don't know anything about party now," he replied. 
"All I know is, traitors have fired on our Hag." 

The hall was filled to overflowing. Mayor Brand, a 
democrat, was called to the chair. In taking it he intima- 
ted that the republicans had brought on the threatened 
national convulsion. He favored some "honorable com- 
promise," and opposed making war upon any portion of 
our common country. 

His weak-kneed honor sat down. Elihu B. Wash- 
burne, the sturdy representative of the district in Congress, 
sprang to his feet and began fervidly : — 

" Mr. Chairman, any man who will try to stir party pre- 
judices at such a time as this, is a traitor !" 

Shouts of applause followed. Then Washburne offered 
a series of resolutions, pledging the people to support the 
Government in maintaining the integrity of the Union and 
the supremacy of the flag, recommending the immediate 
formation of military companies, ready for any call, and, 
concluding : — 

"Finally, we solemnly resolve, that having lived under the Stars and 
Stripes, by the blessing of God we propose to die under them !" 

Amid loud cheering Washburne took his seat. Then on 
every side rose the cry, " Rawlins !" " Rawlins !" 

The slender, erect, young lawyer, elbowed his way 
through the dense throng, up to the little open space on the 
platform, where his pale face, coal-black hair, and flashing 
eyes, could be seen by the entire audience. He was still 
thoroughly angry at the advice of his political friends. He 
spoke in a deep, rich voice, which would have filled a hall 



1861 •] A Grand Speech from Bawlins. 179 

ten times as large. For three-quarters of an hour, amid 
profoundest silence, he reviewed the past ; the real or fan- 
cied wrongs of the slave-holders ; the good faith in which 
the northern democracy had fought their battles under the 
constitution ; the Mood and toil expended in the founding 
and defending of the Republic ; the cheerfulness with 
which minorities, hitherto out-voted, had submitted to the 
will of the majority — as on the Missouri Compromise, the 
Mexican war, and the Kansas-Nebraska bill. That was 
the American way— to trust the future, the good sense, 
justice, and sober second thought of the people. Warming 
with his subject, he made a most cogent and stirring argu. 
ment. Finally, his voice filling every corner of the old 
court-house, and ringing out like a trumpet over narrow, 
winding streets, and sharp hills, he rose to his climax :— 

" I have been a democrat all my life ; but this is no lon- 
ger a question of politics. It is simply country or no 
country. I have favored every honorable compromise ; 
but the day for compromise is passed. Only one course is 
left for us. We will stand by the flag of our country, 

AND APPEAL TO THE GOD OF BATTLES ! " 

The effect was electric. The audience sprang to their feet, 
and gave cheer after cheer for the old flag, for Major Ander- 
son, and for the maintenance of the Union at whatever cost. 

Captain Grant was present. Though he had known 
Rawlins as the attorney for the leather-house, he had no 
intimate acquaintance with him, but this speech so 
thoroughly expressed his own feelings, that, from that 
hour, his heart went out to the young orator. As they 
walked homeward, he said to Orvil :— 

" I think I ought to go into the service." 

"I think so too," replied his brother. "Go, if you 
like, and I will stay at home and attend to the store." 

Two evenings later (Thursday), witnessed another meet- 
ing for raising volunteers, and again the court-house was 
crowded. At the hour, John E. Smith, the militia captain, 
arose, thumped on a seat, and said :— " The .meeting will 
come to order. I nominate for chairman Captain Ulysses S. 
Grant." F 



180 Grant Presides at another Meeting. [i86i. 

The motion was carried. Many citizens were familiar 
with Grant' s name since his election as president of the 
Douglas club, but not a hundred persons in Galena knew 
him by sight. The audience looked on with curiosity, 
while a small stooping gentleman, in an old blue army over- 
coat, with a rusty black hat in his hand and his head thrown 
a little awkwardly on one side, passed through the crowd up 
to the platform. 

He took the chair with a few remarks, during which all 
were struck by his composure and fluency of speech — qual- 
ities which he has never exhibited since when called before 
the public. But then, like every one else, he was nerved 
up by the great occasion. He stated that the object of the 
meeting was to raise and equip a company, and in reply 
to a question about military organization — of which nine- 
teen-twentieths of the people were entirely ignorant — he 
explained the number of men and officers in a company 
and regiment, and the duties and pay of each. 

Rolls were immediately opened for volunteers.^ A. L. 
Chetlain— afterward brigadier-general — and nine. 'or ten 
others, recorded their names. Rawlins suggested that the 
original list be carefully preserved, as autographs of the 
men who first enlisted might one day be valuable. 

In twenty-four hoars there were fifty- one volunteers, 
and within a week the roll was full, and two hundred had 
been rejected. The company joined the Twelfth Illinois 
regiment of three months' men. 

On Saturday morning, Rowley, entering Grant's store, 
said : — 

" Captain, there's to be a meeting for raising volunteers 
at Hanover to-night, and Rawlins and I are going. Suppose 
you go with us." 

"I think I will. Come down after dinner, and Orvil 
and I will take the ponies and drive you over." 

The meeting was held in a school-house, and Grant 
presided. After excellent speeches by Rawlins and 
others, the captain, for the first time in his life, was 
asked to address an audience. He replied in his matter- 
of-fact way : — 



1861.] He makes his First Speech. 181 

" I don't know any tiling about making speeches ; that 
is not in my line ; "but we are forming a company in Galena, 
and mean to do what we can for putting down the rebellion. 
If any of yon feel like enlisting, I will give you all the in- 
formation and help I can." 

Many names were enrolled. At eleven o' clock the meet- 
ing closed. On the way home the young men talked about 
military life and the rebellion. 

Rowley. — "I guess the seventy -five thousand troops 
the President has called for will stop all the row/' 

Geant.— " I think this is a bigger thing than you sup- 
pose. Those fellows mean fight, and Uncle Sam has a heavy 
job on his hands. If I am needed I shall go." 

Rawlins (jestingly). — " Captain Grant, suppose we get 
up a company for the war ; you shall be captain, and Row- 
ley and I will toss up to see which shall be first lieutenant 
and which second." 

Grant replied that he thought himself competent to com- 
mand a company. No one could tell how long the war 
might 'last, as the rebels were brave and desperate. Many 
West-Pointers who sympathized with them had good natural 
talents, in addition to the very great advantage of a military 
education, and would make excellent officers. 

The Galena recruits, ignorant of military outfit and du- 
ties, constantly consulted Grant, who gave all the desired 
information, and devoted four days to drilling them. He 
was their first choice for captain, but he declined to run ; 
so Chetiain, who aspired to the position, was elected. Wash- 
burne, busy about many things, as yet knew little of Grant ; 
but one day, Collins, Jesse's old partner — a peace democrat 
— accosted him on the street : — 

" A pretty set of fellows your soldiers are, to elect Chet- 
iain for captain !" 

" Why not?" 

"Oh, Chetiain is well enough, but he hasn't had any 
experience. They were foolish to take him when they could 
get such a man as Grant." 

" What's Grant's history ?" 

" Why, he is old man Grant's son, was educated at West 



182 Goes with Washburne to Springfield. [ 18 6i. 

Point, served in the army eleven years, and came ont with 
the very best reputation." 

Washburne called upon the ex-officer, and they had a 
talk. Grant said : — 

" I left the army, expecting never to retain. I am no 
seeker for position, but the country, which educated me, 
is in sore peril, and, as a man of honor, I feel bound to 
offer my services for whatever they are worth." 

"Captain," replied Washburne, "we need just such 
men as you — men of military education and experience. 
The Legislature meets next Tuesday ;* several of us are 
going to Springfield ; come along — you will surely be 
wanted." 

" I guess you will have to get along without me hereaf- 
ter," Grant said to his brothers. " Uncle Sam educated me 
for the army, and, though I have served through one war, I 
am still indebted to him. ~Now he is likely to want all the 
help he can get." 

To Springfield the captain went with Washburne, Rus- 
sell Jones, and another leading republican, all particularly 
glad to secure him, because he had sympathized with the 
democracy. 

The Legislature met. Grant took quarters at the Cheney 
House, and waited for events. All was confusion. Officers 
in uniform rushed hither and thither, sending off telegrams, 
and giving orders excitedly, without system or organization. 
The military hero of the hour and the State, Captain John 
Pope, could bring no order out of this chaos. 

Washburne and his friends urged Governor Yates to 
give Grant a position ; but other men had political claims, 
and in the bewildering scramble there was much delay. 
Grant, simple-hearted and unselfish, was shocked and dis- 
gusted at the self-seeking all around. He said, vehemently : 

' ' This is no place for me. I will go home to Galena. I will 
not be an office-seeker, and I can't afford to stay here idle." 

"Hold on a little, captain," replied Washburne ; "every 
thing can't be done in a moment. Have patience." 

* April 23d. ' 



1861.] A Clerk in the Governor's Office. 183 

Tims, day after day, Grant's restlessness was soothed. 
The prospect was discouraging. Already he had tendered 
his services to the Government at Washington, and the 
adjutant-general had not even the grace to answer his let- 
ter. His name had been mentioned to the governor of his 
native Ohio, "but no commission had been offered. Now, 
in his adopted Illinois, there seemed to be no place for him. 

His Galena friends kept him in Springfield with the 
greatest difficulty. Finally, about the first of May, Gov- 
ernor Yates, after asking him if he could tell how many 
men and officers there were in a company and in a regi- 
ment — which was more than his excellency yet knew — took 
Grant into his office as clerk and military adviser to him- 
self and his adjutant-general. The latter had no printed 
forms for transacting the important business of his office. 
Grant ruled sheets of paper until blanks could be printed, 
systematized the whole business, and turned it off with the 
greatest ease. He consulted no books, having at his finger- 
ends all needed information ; yet he did his work so un- 
demonstratively that neither governor nor adjutant-general 
was particularly impressed with his capacity. 

The office work once reduced to mere clerical routine, 
Grant assumed more important duties. On the fourth of May 
he was put in command of Camp Yates, during the tempo- 
rary absence of Captain Pope. Next he mustered in several 
new regiments, including the Twenty-first, at Mattoon. 
He was called "captain," but he had neither uniform nor 
commission. 

The Vicksburg Sun, of May thirteenth, commented with 
glee upon a report of "one Captain U. S. Grant," to the 
governor, that Illinois boasted just nine hundred muskets, 
of which only sixty were in serviceable condition. It drew 
a ludicrous picture of the Prairie State and her ex-captain, 
with three-score rusty guns, coming to conquer the South. 
They learned something more in Vicksburg, by and by, of 
"one Captain U. S. Grant" and of Illinois soldiers. 

Toward the close of May, he went home on a brief visit. 
On his way back to Springfield, a friend asked : — 

"Why don't you put in for one of these Illinois regi- 



184 Made Colonel of the Twenty-fiest. [ 18C1 - 

ments \ As tilings are going, I don't know why you are 
not as much entitled to a colonelcy as any one." 

u To tell you the truth," replied Grant, after a moment's 
hesitation, "I would rather like a regiment, yet titer e are 
few men really competent to command a thousand soldiers, 
and I doubt whether I am one of them" 

By the tenth of June all the regiments had "been muster- 
ed in, and Grant went on a visit to his father, in Covington. 
His old friend McClellan, was in command at Cincinnati, 
just across the river, and Grant called upon him twice. 
He did not propose to ask for an appointment, but thought 
that McClellan might invite him to come on his staff. For- 
tunately, he did not find that general at his office on either 
occasion. 

Meanwhile there was trouble in the Twenty-first Illinois 
Infantry, at Camp Yates. Colonel Goode, its commander, 
a large, fine-looking man, a Kentuckian by birth, had been 
in the Mexican war, the Lopez expedition against Cuba, and 
the Kansas border troubles. At the outbreak of the re- 
bellion he was city clerk at Decatur, Illinois. He raised a 
company, and finally rose to the colonelcy of the Twenty- 
first. But what experience ever taught one, not born to it, to 
control men % 

The troops became insubordinate ; many deserted ; and 
it became evident that the colonel was utterly incompetent. 
The governor, therefore, refused to commission him,* and 
about this time, meeting a book-keeper from the Galena 
store, asked : — 

" AY hat kind of a man is this Captain Grant? Though 
anxious to serve, he seems reluctant to take any high posi- 
tion. He even declined my offer to recommend him to 
Washington for a brigadier-generalship, saying he didn't 
want office till he had earned it. What does he want ?" 

"The way to deal with him," replied the book-keeper, 
"is to ask him no questions, but simply order him to duty. 
He will obey promptly." 

* Goode afterward sought to re-enter the regiment as a private, but was refused. 
He then became a Peace Democrat, and in 1868 met his death in a personal rencoun- 
ter in Missouri. 



1861.] His Men Like Falstaff's Soldiers. 185 



Thereupon the governor dispatched to Grant : — 

" Yon are this day appointed colonel of the Twenty-first 
Illinois Volunteers, and requested to take command at once." 

This was on Saturday. Before the telegram reached Cov- 
ington, Grant had started on his return. Spending Sunday 
with his old classmate, J. J. Reynolds, at Terre Haute, In- 
diana, he was again in Springfield on Monday morning, and 
immediately began the duties of his new position. Of his 
commission, dated on the sixteenth of June, Yates declares : 

' ' It was the most glorious day of my life when I 
signed it." 

Colonel Grant found his new regiment in the worst pos- 
sible condition. The men mostly without tents, without 
uniforms, and as ragged as Falstaff's recruits, wore their 
oldest clothes, after the manner of volunteers about to get 
new suits from the Government. They were chiefly farmers' 
sons, of fine physique — the best raw material for good sol- 
diers, but utterly demoralized by want of discipline. Gen- 
eral John E. Smith* says of the colonel's first visit to his 
command — 

" I went with him to camp, and shall never forget the scene when his 
men first saw him. Grant was dressed in citizen's clothes, an old coat worn 
out at the elbows, and a badly damaged hat. His men, though ragged and 
barefooted themselves, had formed a high estimate of what a colonel should 
be, and when Grant walked in among them, they began making fun of him. 
They cried in derision, 'What a colonel!' 'D—n such a colonel,' and made 
all sorts of fun of him. And one of them, to show off to the others, got 
behind his back and commenced sparring at him, and while he was doing 
this another gave him such a push that he hit Grant between the shoulders." 

The soldiers soon learned that their quiet commander 
was not to be trifled with. One of the first morning roll-calls 
was an hour late. Grant observing it, simply sent them 
back to their quarters. There being no morning report, no 
rations came in that day ; so they begged, borrowed, and 
bought food wherever they could find it. At the first dress 
parade several officers appeared without coats. Said Grant, 
sharply : — 

* Pepper's Personal Recollections of Sherman's Campaigns. 



ISO Beginning of Wasiiburne's Friendship. [ 1861 - 

"This is a dress parade. Officers are expected to wear 
their clothes. Dismiss the men to quarters." 

He turned and walked away without another word. A 
few of these sharp penalties and admonitions "brought men 
and officers to their duty In ten days there was tolerably 
good discipline, and ultimately the regiment became one of 
the "best in the service. Notwithstanding his severity, the 
men grew attached to him, as soldiers always do to officers 
who are just, self- controlled, and "know their business.' 

Before taking the field, Grant paid another flying visit to 
Galena. He must have an outfit, and no gifts of swords, horses, 
or money, poured in during these days of obscurity. With 
genuine human nature, instead of applying to his kindred, 
he procured the indorsement of Collins, his father's old 
partner, to his note for three hundred dollars, and with the 
proceeds bought horse and uniform. 

One Sunday afternoon, during this visit, he rode over to 
Wasiiburne's, in whose library the two talked for several 
hours, about the rebellion and the means necessary to crush 
it. Grant's intelligence, self-abnegation, and clear-headed- 
ness were so palpable, that they won for him a powerful 
and enthusiastic friendship, which was never to be shaken 
in dark days yet to come. 

The regiment had been mustered in for only thirty days, 
but it re-enlisted for the war. Soon after Missouri called 
for aid. Governor Yates said : — 

"I would send another regiment, if I had transporta- 
tion." 

"Order mine," replied Grant ; "I will find transporta- 
tion." 

Yates did order it to Mexico, in northern Missouri, and 
Grant marched his men across the country, as the shortest 
and best way to make soldiers of them. They started in 
high feather, a good deal more troublesome to their friends 
than they seemed likely ever to be to their enemies. But 
the colonel soon put a stop to depredations. The first 
night he had a number of men tied up by the thumbs, 
and in a few days they were as disciplined and orderly on 
the march as of late they had been in camp. 



1861.] His Heaet Tendee and Lenient. 187 

In a week they readied their destination. Pope was in 
command of north Missouri. Grant, though a junior colo- 
nel, was placed in charge of a brigade. His men had noth- 
ing to do but guard railway trains and bridges, and occa- 
sionally make short marches in pursuit of the swarming 
bushwhackers. On one excursion, several soldiers obtained 
whisky, and soon began to stagger. Grant immediately 
halted the regiment, went through the ranks, examined 
each canteen and emptied out liquor wherever he found it. 
He had the men tied behind baggage wagons till they grew 
sober, and sharply reprimanded the officers for permitting 
such a gross abuse. 

While in civil life, he once said to a friend : — 

"If a man wants promotion in the army, he should re- 
sign and take advantage of the first war to go in for 
promotion. He is morally sure of a higher position." 

Now, encountering Grant in the field, this friend asked : — 

" Well, are you going in for promotion now V 

' ' No, I am nicely fixed at Galena. To tell you the 
truth, I would not go back to the regular army short of a 
colonelcy, and I know very well that I could not get that." 

Notwithstanding his love of discipline, his heart was 
tender and lenient. A colonel asked his counsel as to 
how he should deal with a boyish volunteer who had left 
an excellent home, but was now falling into *bad conrpany, 
gambling, and neglect of duty. Grant replied : — 

" The army is a hard place. It will ruin a great many 
young men. Talk to him and try to teach him more self- 
control. Do every thing to counteract the evil influences 
of camp-life, but don't punish him, unless you find it ab- 
solutely necessary, for that brings a sense of degradation." 

The regimental chaplain was in the head-quarters mess. 
Shortly after he joined the regiment, Grant said to him :— 

"Chaplain, when I was at home, and ministers stopped 
at my house, I always invited them to ask a blessing at the 
table. I suppose it is quite as much needed here as there, 
and I shall be glad to have you do it whenever we sit down 
to a meal." 

In July began a special session of Congress. Illinois 



1SS Made Brigadier-Gexeeal. E 1861 - 

had thirty-six regiments in the field. President Lincoln 
sent a printed notice to each of her senators and represent- 
atives, requesting them to recommend four soldiers for briga- 
diers, in the desired order of rank. 

The delegation met at the parlor of Senator Trumbull, in 
Eighth Street. Washburne, urging that the northwest cor- 
ner of the State had sent many troops, and was entitled to 
a brigadier, placed Grant in nomination. Then the delega- 
tion voted for each candidate separately. Grant was the 
only one who received every vote, therefore he stood at the 
top of the list. Hurl but, Prentiss, and McClernand fol- 
lowed in the order named. 

Nearly forty other appointments were made the same day, 
the seventh of August, but the commissions dated back to 
the seventeenth of May. Grant stood number seventeen 
on the list. Above him were Franklin, Sherman, Buell, 
Pope, Hooker, Kearny, and Fitz John Porter. He knew 
nothing of his good fortune until one morning the chaplain, 
brought him a morning paper from St. Louis, saying : — 

"Colonel, I have some news here that will interest 
you." 

" What is it?" 

" You are made brigadier-general." 

Grant read the announcement and replied : — 

"I had no suspicion of it. It never came from any re- 
quest of mine. It must be some of Washburne' s work." 

Thus, after two months of command, Grant's connection 
with the Twenty -first regiment ended. An account of it 
from his own hand, concludes : — 

"We did make one march, however, from Salt River, Mo., to Flor- 
ida, Mo., and return, in search of Tom Harris, who was reported in 
that neighborhood with a handful of rebels. It was impossible to get 
nearer than a day's march of him. From Salt River the regiment 
went to Mexico, Mo., where it remained for two weeks, thence to Ironton, 
passing through St. Louis on the seventh of August, where I was as- 
signed to duty as a brigadier-general, and turned over the command of 
the regiment to that gallant and Christian officer, Colonel Alexander, who 
afterward yielded up his life while nobly leading it in the battle of Chicka- 
rnauga." 



1861.] Hillyer's Enthusiastic Client. 189 



CHAPTER XV. 

BRIGADIER-GENERAL. 

Fremont commanded the department, and to him the 
new brigadier reported. The forces near Pilot Knob were 
expecting to be attacked ; so Grant was placed in charge, 
and built fortifications. After remaining ten days, and see- 
ing nothing of the enemy, he was suddenly ordered to Jef- 
ferson, the State capital, which was also threatened. 

His old friend Hilly er was still in the St. Louis law office. 
During one of the hottest of dog days in that hottest of cities, 
while he was lounging at his desk, in rushed William 
Truesdail,* an old client of the firm, a man of tremendous 
energy, who had been every thing everywhere — merchant, 
sheriff, real estate speculator, bank-teller, and contractor on 
New York, Panama, and Texan railways. 

" Ah ! Hilly er," exclaimed the breathless visitor, "glad 
to see you — been looking everywhere for you — remember 
Grant \ — used to be clerk in your office, you know — briga- 
dier-general now — commanding at Jefferson City — been 
there to see him — got a big contract for you and me — told 
him we were in partnership — he said, ' I'll do any thing I 
can for Hilly er ;' and gave me letter to Hunterschott, the com- 
missary ; so, P ve got a splendid contract — papers all ready — 
come out and sign them with me. By the way, Grant said 
he wanted to see you." 

Hillyer looked into the contract, signed it, and a day or 
two after received a telegraphic request from the General, to 
accept a place on his staff. Without the least idea of 
entering the army, but desirous of seeing his old friend, 
he took a train for Jefferson. But Grant had been 

* Afterward widely known as chief of secret service in the Army of the Cum- 
berland. 



190 A Teap for Jeff Thompson. C 18G1 - 

summoned back to St. Louis, and had left word for him to 
follow immediately. He did so, and at the Planter's House 
found the General, who, seemingly infected by the bustling 
Truesdail, accosted him : — 

' ' Come, Hillyer, here' s your horse all ready. I have 
kept a steamer waiting for you three hours. I am going 
to Cape Girardeau, and want you to go with me on my 
staff." 

" Why, I haven't enlisted !" 

" No matter for that ; you can enlist on the way." 

"But I've got no clothes, and no money; my wife ex- 
pects me home to tea, and my business needs attending to." 

" Well, I owe you fifty dollars, and here it is — that will 
do for money. As for clothes, I guess we have enough 
among us to supply you. We're ordered to the field, and 
expect a fight with Jeff Thompson. If you survive it, I'll 
give you leave of absence to come home and settle your 
business." 

"But I've just taken a beef contract. I can't keep 
that and be on your staff." 

" That's a fact ; so you had better give it up and come 



along. 



>5 



Hillyer turned over the contract to a friend, and started 
down the river. 

"By the way. General," he asked, after they had em- 
barked, " what's to be my rank — and have you got a com- 
mission for me V 

"Well, not exactly; but Fremont, who has authority 
from the Government, promises me he will appoint you. 
Of course I shall get you the best rank I can. For the 
present we will call you captain." 

In the evening the two studied minutely the elaborate 
instructions which had been given to Grant. Jeff Thomp- 
son's camp was to be surrounded, McClernand coming up 
from one direction, Prentiss from another, a third Union 
column from another, and Grant from Cape Girardeau. 

" Well," said the General, laughing heartily, " this plan 
will work, except in one contingency. If Jeff Thompson 
stays where he is, we shall close in upon him beautifully ; 



i86i.] First Newspaper Description of Grant. 191 

but if lie happens to move ten or twelve miles, we haven't 
the least chance of catching him." 

On the steamer was a young journalist, Thomas W. 
Knox, of the New York Herald, who had just begun his 
campaigning. Most correspondents, fearing that the war 
would be over before they could witness actual conflict, 
envied Knox, who had had the good luck to be present 
at Booneville and Wilson Creek, the first skirmish and the 
first battle of the West. Now expecting a fight at Cape Gi- 
rardeau, he meant to be "there to see." In the evening, 
he wrote to his journal some account of Grant's personal 
appearance — the first newspaper description of him which 
ever appeared — closing with an apology for saying so much 
about an unknown brigadier : — 

" The General is decidedly mimartial in appearance, and would be the 
last man among the twenty occupants of the cabin who would be selected 
as superior officer of all. He is about forty-five years of age, not more than 
five feet eight inches in height, and of ordinary frame, with a slight tendency 
to corpulency. The expression of his face is pleasant, and a smile is almost 
continually playing around his eyes. * * * Thus much I have ^aid con- 
cerning him, as it is possible he may figure prominently in action before 
many weelcs.'''' 

On the night after Grant reached Girardeau, a German 
regiment came with its band, and gave him his first serenade. 
Hilly er, requested by his chief to acknowledge the courtesy, 
responded in genuine American rhetoric, telling his martial 
hearers, very few of whom comprehended English at all, 
that it was the time for deeds, not words. He appealed to 
their patriotism, and pointed his climax with the lines :— 

" Strike for your altars and your fires, 
Strike for the green graves of your sires, 
God and your native land!" 

Probably not one man in the regiment was born in the 
United States, so Hillyer's quotation caused much merri- 
ment, which he enjoyed quite as much as anybody. 

On Grant' s approach the wily Jeff slipped away, and in 
two or three days the General went to Cairo, head-quarters 



192 Occupies Paducah Without Oedees. D 86 *- 

of the district which had been placed under him. It 
included Southern Illinois, Western Kentucky and Ten- 
nessee, and the mouths of three important rivers, the Ohio, 
the Tennessee, and the Cumberland. 

When Grant assumed command on the fourth of Septem- 
ber, he superseded Brigadier-General B. M. Prentiss\ Their 
commissions bore the same date, but Grant stood first on the 
list, and had been a captain in the regular army. Prentiss, 
however, claimed seniority on the novel ground that he had 
been a brigadier-general of militia. I remember meeting 
him in St. Louis one day, and expressing my surprise that 
he had come away from Cairo. He replied, bitterly : — 

" Yes, I have left. I will not serve under a drunkard." 

Of course, the question of rank was decided against him, 
and he was sent to another held. Grant had eight thousand 
soldiers in his district, three little wooden gun-boats patrol- 
ling the river, and several iron-clads building at Mound 
City, six miles above Cairo. Fortifications were begun at 
the latter ague-stricken city, at Bird's Point opposite, 
on the Missouri shore, and at Fort Holt, on the Ken- 
tucky shore. The rebel commander in that region was 
Polk, a bishop of the Episcopal Church, who had exchanged 
the crozier for the sword. Grant soon learned that Polk was 
marching a force upon Paducah, Kentucky, a few miles 
above Cairo, and a most important point, because at the 
mouth of the Tennessee. He instantly telegraphed Fremont, 
asking permission to seize the town. As there was no time 
to waste, he fitted up an expedition, and, failing to get an 
answer, dispatched a second time to Fremont: — "I am 
nearly ready to go to Paducah, and shall start should not 
a telegram arrive preventing the movement. " Still no an- 
swer. Grant lingered impatiently until ten that night, and 
then said to his staff : — 

' ' Come on ; I can wait no longer. I will go if it costs 
me my commission." 

His forces, three regiments and a light battery, steamed 
up the river, and early next morning took possession of 
Paducah without firing a gun. While they were landing, 
the rebel General Tilghman and staff, with a company of 



i86i.] Rawlins Joins his Staff. 193 

recruits, hurried out of town "by railway. A force of the 
enemy four* thousand strong, approaching from the south, 
and within three hours of the city, turned back on learning 
of Grant's arrival. Rebel flags were flying from several 
houses. The moment the troops entered, loyal citizens be- 
gan to tear these down and to run up the Stars and Stripes. 
The General captured a great quantity of bacon, leather, and 
other Confederate stores ; and issued an order encouraging 
the citizens to pursue their usual avocations without fear, 
and adding, "/ have nothing to do with opinions, and 
shall deal only toith armed rebellion, and its aiders and 
abettors" 

Grant, remaining but a few hours, left a garrison and 
returned to Cairo. There he found a dispatch from Fre- 
mont, "Take Paducah if you are strong enough." His 
prompt action without orders was of great importance. 
Twelve hours' delay would have given the rebels the 
mouths of the Tennessee and the Cumberland, points which 
we could never have wrested away without hard fighting. 

On the fifteenth of September, his Galena friend, Raw- 
lins, reported for staff duty at Cairo as assistant adjutant- 
general, with the rank of captain. From the evening of 
Rawlins' speech, in April, the General had been pressing 
him to enter the service in some such capacity, and had fre- 
quently assured him that he thought he would make a 
good regimental adjutant ! The securing of Rawlins on his 
own staff proved most happy. To great promptness and 
singularly clear judgment, he added unselfish patriotism 
and heartiest loyalty to his chief. Of all the able and devo- 
ted soldiers, whom Grant's sagacious knowledge of men 
has called to responsible and difficult positions, few have 
done the country such signal service as John A. Rawlins.* 

Grant' s peculiar aptitude for military life, soon made it- 
self felt at Cairo. New-fledged colonels and captains, bril- 
liant in gold and feathers and fresh uniforms, were, at first, 
merry about the shabby civilian suit and rusty stove-pipe 



* Now brigadier-general in the regular service, and chief-of-staff of the armies of 
the United States. 



194 How the General Transacted Business. D 861 - 

hat in which the General appeared when not on parade, "but 
soon saw that he was a thoroughly practical and accomplished 
soldier. Two qualities were strongly marked : (1.) What- 
ever he did was done on Ms own judgment. He showed 
unusual modesty of opinion and unusual confidence of action. 
He heard all friendly suggestions with unvarying politeness, 
and then did— exactly as he saw fit. (2.) He trusted sub- 
ordinates thoroughly, giving only general directions, not 
hampering them with petty instructions. 

He never consulted authorities, but, seeming to have the 
Army Regulations at his tongue' s end, disposed instantly and 
methodically of every question. No papers accumulated. 
The moment one came in, it was indorsed and referred to 
the proper subordinate, or, if valueless, torn in pieces and 
thrown on the floor. 

Though keeping no books, he was thoroughly acquaint- 
ed with the minutest affairs of his entire command, and 
surprised both old and new friends by the ease, precision, 
rapidity, and efficiency with which he turned off business. 
His friend Washburne paid him a visit in October, and was 
deeply impressed with his promptness and ability. From 
that hour, Washburne maintained so earnestly that our 
General was the " coming man" of the Avar, that even his 
friends used laughingly to accuse him of having " Grant 
on the brain," and being a little out of his wits. 

He was not alone in his estimate. The rebel officers con- 
gratulated themselves that they had on their side the flower 
of the old army. But once, in discussing the matter at Rich- 
mond, Ewell said : — 

"There is one West Pointer, I think in Missouri, little 
known, and whom I hope the Northern people will not find 
out. I mean Sam Grant. I knew him well at the Academy 
and in Mexico. I should fear him more than any of their 
officers I have yet heard of. He is not a man of genius, but 
he is clear-headed, quick, and daring." 

Colonel Richard J. Oglesby* was commanding at Bird' s 

* Afterward major-general, wounded in the battle of Corinth, and governor of 
Illinois from 1864 to 1868. 



1361.] A Story of "Samaritan Oglesby." 195 

Point. So easy was lie in giving passes to the people about 
him to cross to Cairo and purchase goods, that his soldiers 
called him " Samaritan Oglesby." Grant was finally com- 
pelled to issue an order that no one should cross from Ken- 
tucky or Missouri, without a pass from himself, as sup- 
plies could be freely purchased in Cairo, and many went 
directly to the rebel army. But the applicants, like Rich- 
ard, had "a tongue that could wheedle with the devil," and 
their importunities were so pressing that the colonel was con- 
stantly seconding their appeals, each one of which seemed 
to him a "peculiar case." One afternoon, however, Oglesby 
appeared at head-quarters, and said vehemently :— 

" General, you have no idea how these people annoy me ; 
they throng my office in a perfect mob ; they keep me em- 
ployed from morning till night Why, I don't even get 
time to talk !" 

"Really, colonel," replied Grant, with a smile, "that 
must be a severe restriction upon you." 

However, the order did not accomplish its purpose, so 
it was soon revoked. 

Grant' s troops were learning his worth. Chetlain, serv- 
ing under him as lieutenant-colonel, wrote back to his Galena 
friends, "This man is the pure gold." Still he was not 
exempt from scandal. He abstained wholly from liquor, 
save for a few days after an attack of ague, when he took it 
by order of his surgeon. But a ring of contractors, whose 
hostility he had provoked, made this the excuse for reviving 
the old story of drunkenness. Washburne, reading it in the 
newspapers, and altogether ignorant of Grant's personal 
habits, inquired of Rawlins by letter whether there were 
any grains of truth in the story. The aid replied, explain- 
ing the only fact that had given color to it, and adding, that 
as much as he loved Grant, he loved the country more, and 
if, at any time, from any cause, he should see his chief unfit 
for the position he occupied, he should deem it his duty to 
inform Washburne at once. Before mailing the letter, he 
handed it to Grant. The General, who had suffered keenly 
from these reports, read it with much feeling, and said, em- 
phatically : — 



196 GttANT HAS INDEPENDENCE AND OPPORTUNITY. [* 861 « 

"Yes, that's right; exactly right. Send it by all 



means." 



The staff telegraphed to Washburne that Pope's friends 
were urging his promotion to a major-generalship, where- 
upon assurances were obtained from the President that no 
major-general would be appointed from Illinois until some 
brigadier earned promotion in the field. 

" Of course," replied Washburne, " that's all we want." 
On the thirteenth of October, in a flag of truce letter, 
Polk proposed an exchange of the prisoners held by the 
Southern Confederacy. Grant replied :— 

" I have not the power to make any exchange of prisoners. I recognize 
no Southern Confederacy myself, hut will communicate with the higher 
authorities for their views." 

Fortune had been kind in giving the General a detached, 
and therefore a comparatively independent command, and 
in placing that command at a most important strategic point. 
The East does not at all comprehend the passionate enthu- 
siasm of the people of the Northwest for the Mississippi. 
If they do not wed it annually with ring and stately cere- 
monial, they still love the muddy river as old Venetians did 
the shining Adriatic. Even before the purchase of Louisi- 
ana, when France, who owned that province, placed some 
obstructions on commerce at the river mouth, the whole West 
was ready to fight for it. At the outset of our war, the one 
great cry west of the Alleghanies was, "We must have the 
Mississippi. Neither its mouth nor its banks must ever be 
under the jurisdiction of any other Government than our 
own." Even the banners of recruits bore the inscription : — 
" The rebels have closed the Mississippi. We must cut our 
way to the Gulf with our swords." 

So accident had given Grant the two great keys to suc- 
cess — independence and opportunity. Did he possess the 
third, without which all others are worthless \ 



1861 -1 Oedeked to Move at Last. 



197 



CHAPTER XVI. 

BELMONT. 



The rebels held the Great River from the Gulf almost 
to Cairo. They had strongly fortified Columbus, Kentucky 
only twenty miles below Grant's head-quarters, an extremely 
defensible position on the east bank, with bluffs two hun- 
dred feet high. The General, restive at haying the enemy so 
near him, had several times earnestly asked for permission 
to attack, but it was refused. 

His long-coveted opportunity for action came at last 
On the first of November, Fremont, who was in southwest 
Missouri expecting daily an attack from Price's army 
ordered him to make demonstrations below Cairo, on both 
sides of the Mississippi, that Polk might not send Price 
re-enforcements. 

Grant immediately started one command under Oglesbv 
down the Missouri shore, and another under diaries F 
Smith along the Kentucky shore to the rear of Columbus.' 
At ten o clock on the night of the sixth he started in 
person down the river, with three thousand men, upon five 
transports protected by two wooden gun-boats. The troops 
were entirely raw ; several hundred had not received their 
muskets until two days before. Probably not a dozen 
officers and men all told had ever heard a hostile gun fired 
Nine miles below Cairo the boats tied up for the night at 
the Kentucky shore. The head-quarters steamer was so 
crowded with men, that there was no opportunity for lying 
down, so the General and staff slept in their chairs in the 
cabin. About midnight came a note from W H L Wal- 
lace, m -Charleston, Missouri, announcing that the rebels 
were crossing from Columbus, and had already thrown sev- 
eral regiments into Belmont, apparently to intercept Oglesby 
and re-enforce Price. Grant immediately said :- 



198 



Determines to Attack tiie Enemy. 



[1861. 



"The only way now to make this expedition of any 
value is, to attack. Besides a skirmish will give our men 
confidence. They enlisted to fight ; if we bring them back 
without an engagement, they will think we are afraid to pit 
them against the enemy. The rebels will think so too, for 
in all our flag-of-truce meetings they have been a little 
supercilious. It is time for them to find out whether we fear 
them." 



IRONTON 



tt 




Belmont, Fort Henry, Donelson, Shiloh, Corinth, and Iuka. 

Early next morning, Grant landed his little force in Mis- 
souri, four miles above Belmont, and at the lowest point out 
of reach of the Columbus batteries. Hauling the cannon up 
the steep bank, and leaving the transports under guard of 
the gun-boats and a battalion of infantry, our troops moved 
forward a mile and formed in line of battle. 



1861.] The Battle of Belmont Begins. 199 

Soon after nine, a. M., a mile and a half above Belmont, 
the light began, in a swampy forest. The soldiers, never 
under lire before, got behind trees and blazed away quite at 
random, but Grant, with his staff and Logan, rode along the 
front, encouraging them and rallying them from their hiding- 
places, but never roughly, remembering that habit alone 
can bring discipline. When the enemy had fallen back, 
Grant cried out to his adjutant : — 

" Stop the men, they are wasting ammunition." 

Rawlins has a stentorian voice ; but as he tried to repeat 
this order to the colonels, it was lost in "the thunder of the 
captains and the shouting." Grant, likewise, bending down 
from his horse to bring his mouth as near as possible to the 
ears of his men, screamed : — 

' ' Don t fire till you see somebody, and then take good 
aim." 

As they pressed forward, rebel bullets began to hum 
again like the noise of a cotton factory. A shot in the stifle- 
joint disabled Grant's horse. Hilly er immediately gave the 
General his own and took Grant's pony, which his negro 
servant, Bob, was riding for a reserve ; but the pony was 
ridiculously small for a war-horse, so Hillyer soon returned 
him to Bob, and obtained another steed. 

Two of our soldiers in the woods got in the rear of a long, 
lank, loose-jointed rebel, who had become so interested in 
shooting as to remain behind a tree until cut off from his 
command. The frightened prisoner said he belonged to the 
Second Tennessee regiment. Grant asked : — 

" How large is the force fighting against us V 

" To God, stranger," exclaimed the terrified Tennessean, 
lifting both his hands above his head, "I cant tell. This 
yer ground was just kivered with men this morning. Swar 
me in, stranger; Til fight for you; swar me in, but don't 
kill me." 

The conflict waxed hot. Our green soldiers gained confi- 
dence, and drove back the enemy from tree to tree. At 
noon Grant said to his staff: — 

" There has been just about fighting enough to do the 
troops good and inspire them with confidence. I should be 



200 Enemy Dei yen and his Camp Captured. [is6i. 



glad to withdraw now, but that's out of the question, and 
we must press on." 

Press on they did for four hours, until they charged 
through the abatis right into the enemy' s camp at Belmont, 
capturing six pieces of artillery, several hundred prisoners, 
and the tents and personal baggage of two thousand men. 
Hundreds of muskets were lying on the ground, and scores 
of horses running about. The rebels had fled in all direc- 
tions, but chiefly down behind the riyer bank. 

Grant's little force had fought splendidly, but victory 
proved too much for it. Bands played the national airs, 
the pursuit of the enemy ceased, and the boys devoted them- 
selves to giving cheers for the Union, and to plundering. 
One succeeded in lifting an enormous canvas-covered trunk 
on the back of a captured horse, and riding off with it, — a 
feat worthy of Blondin. Rawlins said to a sergeant, who 
was rolling up a bundle of clothing at the door of a tent : — 

" Collect your men at once ; we must get out of this." 

" What," asked the surprised sergeant, " and give up 
the position?" 

All the troops supposed that Grant was to hold Belmont ; 
but he had no such intention, as it was completely com- 
manded by the Columbus batteries on the opposite shore, 
and infantry could cross at any moment from Polk's large 
army. 

Belmont is half a mile back from a sharp bend of the 
river. Toward the hollow of this bend, through heavy 
timber, most of the rebels had retreated. Colonel Dougherty 
suggested that they had not crossed to Columbus, but were 
probably hidden under the steep bank. 

' ' No doubt they are, ' ' replied Grant. ' ' We have accom- 
plished all Ave want, and we must get away just as soon as we 



can." 



On the Columbus bank, in full view, long lines of troops 
in gray were marching toward the rebel transports, to be 
ferried over, while it was impossible to tell how many had 
crossed already. This made Grant extremely anxious, and 
he did not join in the general jubilation. In vain did he 
order his men away. Some were busily rifling trunks, cap- 



i8Gi.] "We'll Cut Oup* Way Out." 201 

turing horses, and changing their guns for those left by the 
flying enemy, while McClernand, from his saddle, was mak- 
ing a spread-eagle speech to the rest. Finally, by order 
of his chief, an aide set the camp on fire. As the tents 
blazed up, the shells from Columbus, which had been all the 
while shrieking far overhead, dropped nearer and nearer, 
for the rebel gunners had almost obtained the range. 

The father of Frederick the Great had a pleasant habit 
of kicking subordinates out of his tent, when he could not 
refute their logic. One day an officer steadfastly refused to 
be drawn into a controversy. The king asked why, and 
the officer replied : — 

" Sire, your arguments are too convincing." 

So our hitherto immovable soldiers yielded promptly 
to the incontrovertible logic of these shells, and the General 
soon had the men marching briskly, though without much 
order, toward their boats. 

But before they had gone far, rebel troops, in line of 
battle and with flags flying defiantly, appeared on Grant's 
right flank, marching from the river to intercept him. Al- 
most at the same moment another confederate column 
emerged from the woods and appeared on his left. Dire 
confusion and sharp fighting followed. One of the staff, 
who had never been under fire before, exclaimed : — 

' ' Why, General, we' re entirely lost % They have sur- 
rounded us." 

"Well, then," replied Grant, with unmoved serenity, 
" we will cut our way out. We have whipped them once 
to-day, and I think we can again." 

Subjected to the most appalling form of attack — an enemy 
hanging on both flanks — the troops behaved admirably, and 
finally reached the boats. When they were on board, the 
entire rebel force, having concentrated back from the river, 
appeared in line of battle, in a corn-field, within a hundred 
yards of Grant. He said, earnestly : — 

" One good fire would disperse those fellows. If I had 
a hundred and fifty men at command I could whip them. 
Logan, can't you get your regiment off the boat?" 

I could," replied Logan, " but the men are so demoral- 



.. 



202 Grant has a Narrow Escape. t 18GL 

ized already that I fear we might not get them on again. I 
think we had better let them alone." 

Grant reluctantly assented, and he and Eawlins rode 
down the hank a quarter of a mile to bring up a battalion 
left to guard the boats. But it had withdrawn without 
orders ; so the chief and his adjutant-general found them- 
selves quite outside of the Union lines. As they rode 
leisurely back, on rounding a bend of the river they came 
in full view of the rebel force, within fifty yards of them. 
Grant walked his horse, that he might not show alarm. He 
wore no mark of rank except his sash, which was concealed 
by the blue overcoat of a private, so he was not recognized 
as an officer. General Polk, with the enemy's advance, 
noticed him, and said to his sharp-shooters : — 

" There's a Yankee, if you want to try your aim." 

But the men were all firing at the crowded Union trans- 
ports, and nobody thought the single soldier worthy of 
notice. 

It was no time for loitering, and the two put their horses 
on a run for the boat. Eawlins' happened to be faster than 
Grant' s, so he left the General behind. In the midst of that 
close race for life, along came black Bob, not on Grant's 
pony, which he had lost, but on another which he had cap- 
tured. His hat flew from his head, and the Intelligent Con- 
traband, with shells bursting all around him, was frightened 
almost to death. 

Gilpin-like he ran a race, and Gilpin-like he won it, too, 
for he passed both Eawlins and Grant, and first reached the 
head-quarters boat. Eawlins rode on next, and, in the con- 
fusion, under that hot fire, the plank was drawn in and the 
steamer started. Just then Grant appeared on the bank. 
The captain of the steamer did not know the quiet, rough- 
looking soldier, apparently a private, who stood there amid 
whistling bullets, but an aide explained that it was the Gen- 
eral commanding. So the plank was again run out, Grant 
rode his horse up it, and the transport pushed off. 

The rebels were now so near that our gun-boats opened 
upon them with grape and canister, cutting great gaps in 
their columns. But from the best cover they could find, 



1361.] "Nigger Wuf More to Me." 203 

they poured a vicious musketry fire into our crowded trans- 
ports. 

The next day their Columbus papers stated that our 
men were slaughtered until streams of blood poured from 
the transports and crimsoned the Mississippi, and Polk 
ordered the firing stopped, declaring that this was too much 
shedding of blood, even though it flowed from the invaders 
of their soil ! Actually, not a man was killed, and only 
two soldiers and one deck-hand wounded. The reason — 
over- shooting — was a common one, as the assailants were 
on higher ground than the steamers. 

It was five o'clock when the little Union fleet got off. 
On the head-quarters boat, Hillyer was missed, and it was 
feared he was killed ; but he turned up uninjured. The 
next question was, "What had been done with the General' s 
horse \ While it was being discussed, and Bob kept him- 
self safely out of sight, a quartermaster invited Grant to the 
lower deck, saying : — 

"Come, General, and see what a pretty rebel pony I 
have captured." 

Grant, upon viewing it, seemed greatly surprised, and 
then said, smilingly : — 

' ' Why, captain, this is my pony ; I am very glad you 
saved him for me." 

Just then Bob came up with a most sheepish expression. 

"You rascal," asked Rawlins, sternly, u why didn't 
you take better care of the General' s pony V ' 

The darkey, who stammered badly, replied as quick as 
he could get the unwilling words out : — 

" I reckon General Grant thinks a horse wuf more'n a 
nigger, but a nigger's wuf more to me!" 

Next day Grant sent a flag of truce party to look after his 
wounded. It was accompanied by the wife of a lieutenant- 
colonel who had failed to return with his regiment. She 
suddenly came upon his dead body on the field, gazed a mo- 
ment, then exclaimed agonizingly, "Poor, poor soul! is it 
gone f and fell prostrate upon it, while every looker-on, 
friend and foe, was moved to tears. 

Grant' s total loss was four hundred and eighty-five men, 



204 Grant Delighted with his Troops. [is6i. 

only eighty -four of them killed. He brought away two 
captured field-pieces and one hundred and seventy-five 
prisoners, and destroyed the entire camp equipage of the en- 
emy. The rebel general reported his loss at six hundred 
and forty-two. Of course, both parties claimed the victory, 
the foe with the more reason, as he held the ground at the 
close of the engagement. Polk said in his report : 

" The enemy were thoroughly routed. We pursued them to their boats 
seven miles, then drove their boats before us. The road was strewn with 
their dead and wounded, guns, ammunition, and equipments. Our loss con- 
siderable; theirs heavy." 

Still Grant was content with the result, and delighted 
at the conduct of his soldiers. In a congratulatory order 
he said that, during all the battles of the Mexican war, he 
" never saw one more hotly contested, or where troops be- 
haved with greater gallantry," and he wrote to his father, 
" I feel proud to command such men." 

Never before had he taken into battle a force larger 
than one company. IS ow he had handled successfully three 
thousand men in a difficult position. Both he and they had 
gained confidence. Their conduct had strengthened him in 
the belief that our true policy was to move at once and 
everywhere on the enemy, and not wait to drill and disci- 
pline troops, as the rebels could profit by that delay quite 
as much as we. 

The battle made his name a little known to the country. 
In Virginia it would have excited universal attention and 
newspaper comment, but as it was fought in remote Mis- 
souri, the people knew little about it. They had the general 
impression that it was a decided defeat, yet they were so 
utterly weary of Buell' s and McClellan' s delays that they 
were delighted to hear of one unknown Western general 
who thought that war meant fighting, and had availed him- 
self of his earliest opportunity to stir up the enemy. 



1861.] Halleck's " Order Number Three." 205 



CHAPTER XVII. 

FORT HENRY. 

The battle of Belmont resulted from a demonstration 
ordered by Fremont, but before it was fought he had been 
removed. Halleck, who succeeded him, had some reputation 
as a writer on military science, an army engineer, and a 
successful California politician and lawyer. Grant, with the 
exaggerated respect of a man not facile with the pen for 
one who writes "like a book," over-estimated his ability, 
and long before his appointment, said : — 

" McClellan is in his right place in the East, and I hope 
they will order Jlalleck here. He is the best man for the 
West." 

Halleck proved a soldier with some strong points, but 
excessively dogmatic and rude to visitors. A good military 
theorist, but so timid that he would never attack without 
a "sure thing;" the truth, "nothing risk, nothing win," 
had never dawned upon his opaque brain. He did not even 
seem to know what the war was about. 

" Ours not to reason why, 
Ours but to do or die," 

is a good principle for the private soldier, but no general 
could succeed as commander-in-chief, w r ho had not one glow 
of sympathy with the hopes and fears of the loyal people. 

The lower branch of Congress had already, " Resolved, 
That in the judgment of this House, it is no part of the 
duty of soldiers to capture and restore fugitive slaves." 

Notwithstanding this, one of Halleck's earliest official 
acts, was to issue his infamous "General Order Number 
Three," alleging that fugitive slaves harbored in our 



206 Grant Avoids the Appearance of Evil. C 18€1 - 

camps carried military information to the enemy, and direct- 
ing their expulsion and absolute exclusion from our lines. 

In this, as in all other cases, want of decency was want 
of sense. The charge, utterly false, returned to plague its 
inventor. Though serving the country faithfully and effi- 
ciently afterward, he never recovered from the damage it 
inflicted upon his reputation for truthfulness. 

On the principle of letting well enough alone, Halleck 
retained our General in command at Cairo. A friend soon 
wrote Grant that President Lincoln was willing to make 
him a major-general. He replied : — 

" No ; I do not want promotion till I have earned it." 

During their years of struggle, his wife had more than 
once brought a smile to the faces of her friends by the re- 
mark:— "Mr. Grant has great natural ability. He would 
fill any public position well if he once had a chance." 

Now that his promotion was talked of, one of his own 
relatives said to her : — 

" Ulysses may get along as a brigadier, but he had better 
be satisfied with that, and not seek to rise higher ' 

' ' There is no danger of his reaching a position above his 
capacity," she replied indignantly. " He is equal to a much 
higher one than this, and will certainly win it if he lives." 

Unlike some of our prominent generals, he avoided even 
the appearance of evil. When a near relative asked that a 
contract for supplying the District of Cairo with harness and 
leather might be given to him, Grant indorsed upon the 
petition a request that it might not be granted, as the 
applicant was his kinsman. 

Colonel Ross, commanding at Cape Girardeau, asked 
permission to suppress The Eagle newspaper, which, not 
daring to publish original treason, copied columns of articles 
hostile to the Government from " copperhead" journals of 
Cincinnati and Chicago. But Grant refused, on the ground 
that, however objectionable these might be, whatever could 
be published in Ohio or Illinois must also be permitted in 
Missouri. 

During his entire cadetship at West Point, Charles F. 
Smith had been one of his instructors. Smith was then an 



i86i.] His Loyalty to His Old Instkuctok. 207 

ideal soldier — one of the finest-looking men in our whole 
army. Officers respected him, cadets idolized him. Grant 
esteemed him, next to Scott, the greatest man in all the 
world. In the Mexican war, afterward, his brilliant ex- 
ploits fired anew the enthusiasm of his former pupil. 

Smith was now a brigadier-general of volunteers, in com- 
mand at Paducah. On the way thither he had reported 
to Grant. He was still a soldier of striking appearance — 
erect and graceful, with a fine face, and hair and beard white 
as snow. Grant received him with enthusiastic affection, 
though with great embarrassment at finding their positions 
reversed. It seemed almost impossible for him to give an 
order to his old instructor, and he could no more have 
reprimanded him than an affectionate son could rebuke his 
father. 

During the autumn, in a visit to Paducah, Grant's 
deference was so obvious and painful, that Smith said : — 

" General, I am now a subordinate. I know a soldier's 
duty. Pray, feel no awkwardness whatever about our new 
relations." 

Smith had come from the East in disgrace. He some- 
times drank to excess ; and, while serving in Virginia, his 
loyalty had been most unjustly questioned. He had even 
been publicly charged in Congress with drunkenness on the 
field of battle — a slander which almost justified the declara- 
tion of Richardson of Illinois : — 

" I feel this day that our armies would do better, and gain more and 
greater victories, if the riot act could be read, and both houses of Congress 
dispersed to their homes at the earliest possible moment." 

Scott was hostile to Smith, and had once seen him in- 
toxicated in Washington. But for this he would probably 
have been general-in-chief instead of McClellan, and not 
serving as a subordinate under his former pupil. 

Grant, always indulgent to his friends, and ready to 
forgive seventy times seven offenses, was only the more 
zealous in his attachment now the veteran was in trouble. 
The stories of Smith' s disloyalty probably arose from the 
" conservative" tendencies which he had in common with 



208 His Narrow Escape prom Guerrillas. [isci. 

all our old regular officers. Dispatches from Cairo to the 
Northern press charged him with neglecting his duty in 
Paducah, and also with returning fugitive slaves. Grant 
instructed Rawlins, who supervised all newspaper tele- 
grams, to expunge every thing derogatory to him. Raw- 
lins reported that though he could stop these rumors from 
going over the wires, he could jiot prevent their being sent 
Iby mail. 

"Never mind," replied Grant, "any report against 
Smith must be a lie. Stop it anyhow ; that will make it 
twenty-four hours later in seeing the light." 

The steamers between St. Louis and Cairo gave aid and 
comfort to the rebels. One day at Commerce, Missouri, the 
Platte Valley was stopped by Jeff Thompson with a six- 
pounder. The guerrillas rushed on board, asking : — 

" Where is Grant % Where is the paymaster V 

Grant had intended to go up to Cape Girardeau that 
day with a paymaster, but they were prevented by some 
pressing business. It was suspected that the captain of 
the boat had given information. The guerrillas captured 
eight or ten Union officers on board, but were sorely dis- 
appointed at not bagging more important game. Several 
occurrences of this nature induced Grant in November 
to recommend to Halleck that the carrying trade be- 
tween Cairo and St. Louis "be performed by Government, 
charging uniform rates," and commerce "be cut off from 
all points south of Cape Girardeau." The letter con- 
cluded : — 

" There is not a sufficiency of Union sentiment in this portion of the 
State to save Sodom. 

"This is shown from the fact that Jeff Thompson, or any of the rebels, 
can go into Charleston and spend hours, or encamp for the night, on their 
way north to depredate upon Union men, and not one loyalist is found to 
report the fact to our picket, stationed but one and a half miles off." 

The suggestion was promptly carried out. 

The next cause of serious embarrassment was Halleck' s 
order to expel fugitive slaves. Rawlins often found in the 
newspaper dispatches submitted to him for revision, informa- 
tion which had not vet readied l:oa&-r! carters. His rule 



1861.] a. Little Newspaper Rivalry. 209 

was, to strike out nothing that was true, unless it would in- 
terfere with early military movements. On one occasion, 
the Chicago Tribune's dispatch alleged that three negroes 
who sought protection in our lines at Bird's Point, had 
been sent out by Colonel Oglesfoy, in accordance with Hal- 
leck's order. Rawlins, not having heard of the occurrence, 
expunged the statement. A few minutes later in came the 
representative of the Chicago Times with a dispatch repeat- 
ing the allegation. Rawlins erased it again. The correspond- 
ent said : — 

" I know it's true ; I saw it done myself." 

" That may be," replied the aide, " but I can't let it go 
until toe receive information of it." 

Grant, who from the next room had overheard the con- 
versation, stepped out, and asked : — 

" What is it?" 

Rawlins explained, and the General inquired : — 

" Is the stoiy truef ' 

" Yes," replied the correspondent, "I am sure of it." 

" Yery well, let it go." 

The journalist promised to notify his fellow quill-driver 
that both papers might be fairly treated. But through some 
mistake, which persons familiar with journalistic rivalry 
may possibly comprehend, the Tribune man was not in- 
formed, and his journal did not receive the dispatch until 
one day later. Thereupon that emphatic newspaper de- 
nounced Grant bitterly for suppressing news and carrying 
out Halleck's infamous order. 

The truth was, the three negroes had brought valuable 
information about Jeff Thompson' s movements and strength. 
After receiving it, Oglesby obeyed technically Halleck's 
order and sent them away, but he understood very well 
that just outside of camp some of his officers were wait- 
ing for them. The fugitives were ferried over the river into 
Illinois, and, before the Tribune's publication, were safe in 
Ohio. 

Kentucky, West Virginia, and Missouri, were all ranged 
on the Union side, and had many slave-holders fighting in 
the national army. Therefore, all along the border fugitive- 
o 



210 Deals with Fugitive-Slave Cases. [ 186 *- 

slave cases brought countless annoyances. Grant, the most 
subordinate and law-abiding of men, was sometimes puzzled 
to know how to deal with them. An old Kentuckian, who 
had often given valuable information about rebel move- 
ments, and had endured imprisonment at Columbus for 
being a Unionist, lost several negroes. On endeavoring to 
reclaim them from our camp opposite Cairo, he was arrested 
as a spy. Grant, December twenty-fifth, instructed Colo- 
nel Cook, commanding at Fort Holt : — 

" Your communication in relation to Mr. Mercer is received. I will see 
that he does not trouble your camp in future so frequently as formerly. I 
am satisfied, however, from other evidence than his own, of his loyalty, and 
regret that he should have come so much under your suspicion. 

" While we wish to keep every thing from the enemy, it is our duty to 
alleviate the hardships — consequent upon a state of war — of our Union 
friends in the border States as far as practicable. I gave permission for a 
man to go into your camp for the purpose of recovering his fugitive slaves. 
If General Order Number Three, from head-quarters Department of the Mis- 
souri, had been complied with, this would not have been necessary. Mr. 
Mercer now reports to me that these negroes were found concealed in one 
of the huts at Fort Holt, and that the owner was forcibly prevented from 
recovering his property. 

"If true, this is treating law, the orders of the commander of the 
department, and my orders, with contempt. Mr. Mercer does not charge 
that this was by your order ; but after your attention was called to the fact 
that fugitive slaves were in your camp, as the pass over my signature in- 
formed you was probably the fact, an investigation should have been had, 
and the negroes driven out. I do not want the army used as a negro-catcher ; 
but still less do I wish to see it used as a cloak to cover their escape. 2fo 
matter wliat our private mews may be, there are in this department positive 
orders on the subject, and these orders must be obeyed. 

"I direct, therefore, that you have a search made; and if you find these 
or any other fugitive slaves in camp at Fort Holt, you have them expelled 
from camp ; ancl if, hereafter, you find any have been concealed, or de- 
tained, you bring the party so detaining them to punishment." 

But the loyalty of the negroes was uniform and zealous, 
and it was impossible to expel from the camps the only 
class in the South friendly to our cause. 

With the country in general, Grant was advancing. Less 
than two weeks after writing the above, he made another 
decision, which showed whither his sympathies were tend- 






1862.] Bitter Hostility to Contractors. 211 

ing. The agent of one Doctor Henderson, applied to Ross, 
the Union commandant at Cape Girardeau, to have Hen- 
derson's errant negro returned. The law only required that 
slaves who had worked upon fortifications, or otherwise in 
direct connection with rebel armies, should be retained and 
treated as freemen. But Ross declined to return this one, 
because, though remaining at home, he had been working 
for his master, who was in the rebel army. To his report 
of the case, Grant* dictated a reply sustaining him, and 
taking ground quite in advance of legislation up to that 
time. It concluded : — 

"While it is not the policy of the military arm of the Government to 
ignore or in any manner interfere with the constitutional rights of loyal 
citizens, except when a military necessity makes individuals subservient to 
the public interests, it certainly is not the policy of our army in any manner 
to aid those who in any manner aid the rebellion. If such a master has a 
civil right to reclaim such property, he must resort to the civil authorities to 
enforce that right. The General commanding does not feel it his duty to 
feed the foe, or in any manner contribute to their comfort. If Dr. Hender- 
son has given aid and comfort to the enemy, neither he nor his agents have 
any right to come within our lines, much less to invoke our aid and assist- 
ance for any purpose whatever." 

The hostility of speculators still continued, because 
Grant's long experience as quartermaster, and his inflexible 
integrity caused the exposure and defeat of several ingeni- 
ous devices to cheat the Government. On his sus^estion it 
was finally ordered that the quartermaster at Cairo should 
buy hay and grain, as was needed, direct from the neigh- 
boring farmers without any intervention whatever by middle 
men. The enraged contractors: traduced Grant, and reiterated 
formally the old charges of drunkenness. 

Meanwhile he suggested officially to Halleck the neces- 
sity of a law, providing that " all fraudulent contractors 
be impressed into the ranks, or, still better, into the gun- 
boat service, ichere they could ham no chance of deserting.''' 
Such a general could not fail to make bitter and unscru- 
pulous enemies. 

Buckner commanded the rebel army near Bowling 

* January fifth. 



212 Ax Expedition into Kentucky. [ 1S62 - 

Green, and Buell expected a fight with him. There were 
fears that Polk might send Buckner additional troops, so 
in January Halleck directed Grant to Ibegin threatening 
demonstrations in western Kentucky, sufficient to keep the 
Columbus rebels at home. He added : — 

ik Make a great fuss about moving all your forces toward Nashville, and 
let it be so reported in the newspapers. Let no one, not even a member of 
your staff, know the real object. Let it be understood that twenty thousand 
or thirty thousand men are expected from Missouri — that your force is 
merely the advance guard. The object is to prevent re-enforcements being 
sent to Buckner. Having accomnlished this, slowly retire to your former 
position." 

These instructions were obeyed to the letter. Hundreds 
of visitors, and a score of correspondents, flocked to Cairo 
to accompany the important movement. Horses could not 
be bought or hired, so the members of the press modestly 
insisted that army horses should be detailed for their use. 
But steeds were scarce even at head-quarters, and these 
pressing requests finally exhausted the patience of Rawlins, 
who said : — 

"You can't get horses here, that's all there is about it. 
General Grant doesn't keep a livery stable." 

The journalists were nothing if they were not cynical, 
and as they walked away one murmured the retort : — 

' ' Well, he might well enough, from the number of asses 
about his head-quarters !" 

Of course the secret of the real nature of the expedition 
could not be kept from all the correspondents. Having the 
good fortune to be told confidentially but authoritatively 
that the movement was only a feint, I returned to St. 
Louis, and so avoided the comfortless winter journey. 

On the thirteenth of January the force, six thousand 
strong, started through the Kentucky mud. Discipline was 
very strict. Straggling was forbidden ; and a stringent order 
directed that any soldier taking or destroying private pro- 
perty should suffer severest punishment, and any officer 
aiding or countenancing it be deprived of his sword and 
expelled from the army. 

One morning the good woman of a house where the General 



1862.] "Who Stole the Honey?" 213 

and his staff had spent the night, complained that the 
Twenty- second Illinois Volunteers had stolen the honey- 
comb from her bee-hives, and Grant indignantly ordered 
that they be punished. The regiment was drawn up in a 
hollow square, and Hillyer in a speech of proper rhetoric 
told the men that the General, who had admired their 
bravery at Belmont, was deeply grieved at their present 
misconduct. A tine of five dollars was imposed upon each 
officer, and one dollar upon each private. 

When the march was renewed, Grant rode along to the 
front and was greeted with cheers by regiment after regi- 
ment. But the Twenty-second received him with ominous 
silence, and when he had passed on gave an illustration 
of the democratic spirit of volunteers. The men shouted :- — 

"Who stole the honey ?" 

Then they answered in deep tones : — 

" General Grant's body-guard." 

"Who ate it?" 

"General Grant's staff." 

" Who paid for it ?" 

" The Twenty-second Illinois." (Groans.) 

They were right, at least in part. Months afterward it 
was discovered that the body-guard were the real culprits. 

The command remained out for a week. Its object was 
accomplished. ]N"o re-enforcements were sent to Buckner, 
and though Buell himself was not drawn into fighting, his 
subordinate, George H. Thomas, won the battle of Mill 
Spring, the first of his many soldierly achievements. 

The Tennessee and Cumberland rivers, great highways 
to the heart of the South, enter the Ohio at Smithland and 
Paducah, a few miles above Cairo. On the Tennessee, 
sixty-five miles above its mouth, was the rebel post, called 
Fort Henry, of which little was known. A few miles east, 
on the Cumberland, was Fort Donelson.* The project of 
attacking Henry, had long been talked of East and West, 
Grant had asked Halleck's permission repeatedlv but un- 
availingly, and Commodore Foote, commanding our gun-boat 

* Map, page 198. 



214 Grant has Permission to Move. L 1862 - 

fleet, was equally eager. On the twenty-third of January 
the General went to St. Louis to gain Halleck's consent, 
Ibut received instead a rebuke for meddling, and an order 
to return to Cairo. 

He took time, however, to visit his aged father-in-law. 
At the outset of the war Colonel Dent was a rebel sympa- 
thizer, and when Grant spoke of entering the service, he 
replied : 

' ' Yes, you were educated for the army, and it' s your 
most natural way to support your family. Go into it and 
rise as high as you can, but if your troops ever come on 
this side of the river I would shoot them.'* 

This, however, was only vehemence of expression from 
an old planter, whose interests and associations had al- 
ways been with the slave-holders. Now Grant rode out to 
Gravois, and found the colonel delighted to see him. 
Negroes were growing scarce on the family estate ; most 
had already gone, in anticipation of the coming millennium. 
Those who remained were ordered to kill a turkey, and get 
the best dinner possible for the General. Dent asked about 
the hght at Belmont, and listened to an account of it with 
hearty satisfaction. 

In spite of Halleck's rebuff Grant clung tenaciously to 
his purpose, and on the last of January he and Foote both 
earnestly urged again that they be permitted to go on the 
expedition. Grant wrote that it would have an admirable 
effect upon the troops, besides establishing a good point for 
operations against Memphis, Columbus, and Nashville. 
His chief- of- staff said : — 

" I think the capture of Fort Henry much more import- 
ant than it seemed to me at first." 

" Yes," replied the General, " I think so too. We will 
get ready at once to move against it." 

On the first of February permission came. Grant and 
Foote were already nearly prepared. Newspaper telegrams 
were no longer supervised by Rawlins, but by Colonel 
Biggin, a volunteer aide, who reversed Rawlins' practice and 
allowed every thing untrue to pass, on the ground that it 
could only mislead the enemy. Halleck was so anxious to 



1862.] A ISTew Rule foe the Correspondents. 215 

keep this expedition secret that he had instructed Grant not 
to let even his own staff know of it. Only those who aided 
in the jjreparations were informed, and Riggin was still in 
the bonds of ignorance. 

Late on a dark Sunday night, a Chicago correspondent 
chanced to see two gun-boats back out from the landing 
and move noiselessly up the river. This was enough for 
the imaginative reporter. As Agassiz can describe a fish 
from one fin, so this professor of the quill knew all 
about the expedition from two gun-boats. He instantly 
telegraphed to his journal that a great movement was on 
foot, which would startle the enemy and electrify the loyal 
country. • 

Riggin, supposing it a canard, permitted the dispatch to 
go. It was widely published, and came back to Cairo be- 
fore the main expedition started. Grant, seeing that such 
blunders were inevitable, then made a new rule for news- 
paper correspondents, which he always followed afterward. 
He simply instructed each : — 

' ' You yourself must determine what it is proper to send. 
I trust your discretion and your honor to give no informa- 
tion of value to the enemy." 

This worked admirably ; the confidence he reposed in 
the journalists was never broken, save in one single in- 
stance. 

The correspondents at Cairo learned of the movement, but 
gave no publicity to it. I chanced to be in St. Louis when 
one telegraphed me: — " You can not come too soon — take 
the first train." I arrived just after the expedition had 
started, and, overtaking it at Smithlancl, was received on 
the head-quarters' boat, where for several days I saw much 
of the General and his staff. 

Commodore Foote was an officer of great simplicity of 
character, and earnest, unaffected piety. He always asked 
a blessing upon meals in his cabin, and when lying in port 
was prominent at church and Sunday-school. His gun- 
boats, new in warfare, had just been completed. They were 
low, sheathed with iron, looked like enormous turtles, and 
were manned chiefly by men hitherto employed on river 



216 The Gun-boats Capture Fort Henry. [ 18G2 - 

transports. They had never been tested, and their first 
trial was looked npon with great anxiety. 

Our land forces, debarking three miles below Fort Henry, 
were the first Union soldiers, coming from the North, who 
had penetrated a Cotton State. At noon, on the sixth of 
February, after safely removing the torpedoes, with which, 
as our scouts learned from a loquacious rebel woman, the 
enemy had planted the river, Foote moved out with his 
steamers, and opened fire on the fort. Grant dared delay 
the attack no longer, as he knew that heavy rebel re-en- 
forcements were approaching. 

The iron-clads worked to a charm, turning off the ene- 
my' s shots as a roof turns off hail, and firing with great pre- 
cision, while they steamed forward within three hundred 
yards of the work. In one hour and fifteen minutes after 
Foote fired his first shot, the fort struck its flag. 

Grant's troops, sent to invest it in the rear, were so de- 
layed by mud and swollen streams, that they did not get up 
until after its surrender ; hence the rebel infantry escaped 
to Donelson. General Lloyd Tilghman, his staff, sixty ar- 
tillerists, and fifteen guns, were captured with the fort. The 
fight being only with artillery, the killed and wounded on 
both sides were less than a hundred. 

The garrison had left in such haste that camp fires were 
blazing, meat boiling, bread half mixed, and letters, and 
packs of cards from games interrupted, were lying upon the 
tables. Our delighted troops donned rebel pantaloons and 
coats, hats and shirts, and some even grew demonstrative on 
rebel whisky. 

Among our prisoners was a lieutenant of artillery, born 
and reared in the North. The night after the capture, while 
enjoying the hospitalities of the General and staff on 
the head-quarters' steamer, he talked so insolently about 
the "Vandal horde" and "invading our country," that 
Grant, ever lenient to Southern rebels, but bitter upon their 
Northern sympathizers, confined him in the hold. 



1862 -1 Grant Starts for Donelson. 217 



CHAPTER XVIII. 



DOXELSOjST. 



Being suddenly called to New York, after the capture 
of Fort Henry, I stepped into the General's office on the 
steamer to say " good-bye." He replied : — 

" You had better wait a day or two." 

"Why?" 

" I am going oyer to attack Fort Donelson to-morrow." 

Feeling that this gave me some liberty of questioning, I 
asked : — 

" Do you know how strong it is ?" 

" Not exactly ; but I think we can take it ; at all events, 
we can try." 

The next day and other days passed, but the command 
was powerless. The country was under water, infantry 
could hardly march, and it was impossible to move artillery. 
Grant chafed sadly. Halleck telegraphed : — 

"Hold on to Fort Henry at all hazards. Picks and 
shovels are sent, and large re-enforcements will be sent 
immediately." 

This was thoroughly characteristic of the two men. 
While Halleck was talking about spades and re-enforce- 
ments, Grant seriously contemplated moving upon a strong 
fort which he knew next to nothing about, with infantry 
and cavalry, and without a single field-piece. 

Finally the roads becoming barely passable for artillery, 
on Wednesday, February twelfth, he started with eight 
light batteries, and fifteen thousand troops— without tents 
or baggage— for Donelson, on the Cumberland, twelve miles 
across from Fort Henry. It was named in honor of a 
nephew of Andrew Jackson— a rebel, though his uncle had 
bequeathed a sword to him with the injunction, 



218 Invests it With an Inferior Force. [ ] 862. 

"That lie fail not to use it when necessary in support and protection of 
our glorious Union, and for the protection of the constitutional rights of 
our beloved country, let them he assailed by foreign enemies or domestic 
traitors.' 1 '' 

Before noon our troops drove in the rebel pickets. The 
fort proper covered about a hundred acres, its outworks 
spread over several miles. The approaches were over 
rocky hills, obstructed by fallen trees. Grant's men ad- 
vanced cautiously through thick woods, and after con- 
siderable skirmishing invested the post on all its land sides 
before dark. Their arched line from the river above nearly 
to the river below, was like an over-bent bow, the stream 
answering for the string. At the lower end, on our left, were 
Foote' s gun-boats and Grant' s transports, which had come 
up the Cumberland with rations. At the upper end in front 
of our right, but within the rebel lines, was the little town 
of Dover. 

Only the promptitude of Grant's movements made them 
successful. The rebels had already determined to evacuate 
Columbus, and hold the Tennessee and Cumberland at all 
hazards. Beauregard was bringing up troops from Colum- 
bus when he learned that Fort Henry had fallen. Albert 
Sidney Johnston, commanding all the confederate troops 
in the West, said, on hearing the news : — 

" Then I will defend Nashville at Donelson." 

He strengthened the fort, until twenty-one thousand men, 
with sixty-live pieces of artillery, garrisoned it. Grant was 
attacking an army one-third larger than his own, and pro- 
tected by formidable works ! 

Thursday was spent in reconnoitering, and pushing for- 
ward our lines. There w r ere sharp skirmishes over the yel- 
low earth of many fresh works. The rebels were digging like 
beavers, but the spade was of little use now. Their fatal 
mistake had been in not resisting Grant as he approached 
over the difficult roads from Fort Henry. 

By sundown we had lost four hundred men. The night 
was terrible. The mercury was only ten degrees above 
zero. With the improvidence of raw soldiers, many of our 
troops had thrown away blankets and overcoats on the 



1862.] Our Gun-boats Damaged and Repulsed. 219 

march. Now they suffered intensely from cold, having no 
tents or protection of any kind, and being unable to build 
fires, within musket range of the enemy. Before morning, 
a driving snow-storm began. Many were frozen. The 
wounded, shivering on the ground between the two lines, 
cried agonizingly for water. Many were delirious. Some 
had arms or legs torn off, and in the ghastly light of 
the snow one old, white-haired man in gray homespun, 
was seen lying against a tree with his scalp torn off by a 
shot, and hanging over his face. The snow was crimsoned 
with blood, and during the night angry picket-firing was 
kept up. 

Friday morning brought re-enforcements under Lew 
Wallace, which made Grant' s force nearly as large as that 
of the enemy. The weather continued horrible for cam- 
paigning. Guns, caissons, and wagons were frozen in the 
earth, the men were so stiff that they could hardly walk, and 
many suffered from hunger, as bad roads and frequent 
changes in position had interfered with the distribution of 
rations. There was steady cannonading, aggravated by the 
horrors of sharp-shooting. Our riflemen kept several of the 
enemy's batteries quite unmanned. Now and then the 
rebels would deceive them by sticking up a cap, or a dum- 
my, to draw their fire, and then, seeing their whereabouts, 
would send back a volley. 

The gun-boats had arrived. Grant, who had great confi- 
dence in them, suggested that Commodore Foote run past 
the fort to get above it, and compel its evacuation. But we 
had not then learned how safely armored vessels can 
run the heaviest batteries, and Foote declined the risk. 
Had he assumed it, he, not Grant, would have been the 
hero of Donelson. But the commodore was eager enough 
for an old-fashioned fight. That afternoon his fleet attacked 
at only forty yards. Fort Henry, very low, had been easily 
raked by his guns, but it was hard to damage the Donelson 
batteries, thirty feet above the water. Our soldiers on shore 
listened with keen interest to the shots rattling against 
the ringing iron of the boats, and were ready to assault 
all along the line if Foote should succeed. But the gallant 



220 A Narrow Escape from Defeat. [i862. 

commodore failed. After being under fire an hour and a 
half, lie had only twelve practicable guns left in his whole 
fleet, and had lost fifty-four men, chiefly wounded. His 
flagship had been struck fifty-nine times, and his other boats 
had received twenty -five or thirty shots apiece. He turned 
sadly away, and his disabled boats drifted down stream. 

Grant was extremely anxious. He feared he might have 
to fortify, and capture the place by a regular siege. The 
severity of the weather still increased. During the snowy, 
sleeting, intensely cold night, several of the wounded froze 
to death, and many soldiers were tortured with hunger, but 
exhibited unshaken fortitude. 

Before daylight on Saturday, came a note from Foote, 
written on his flagship, and asking of Grant : — 

" Will you do me the favor to come on board at your earliest convenience, 
as I am disabled from walking by a contusion, and I can not possibly get to 
see you about the disposition of these vessels, all of which are more or less 
disabled." 

At dawn the General rode down two miles to the land- 
ing, and held a long conference with Foote. It convinced 
him that the fleet must go back to Cairo for repairs. 

While he was on the flagship, lively work began on the 
field. Our lines stood : — 

LEFT. CENTER. RIGHT. 

C. F. Smith. Lew Wallace. McClernand. 

The rebels tried to do what they might have done suc- 
cessfully two days before. They massed heavily on our 
right, and attacked furiously at daylight. They expected 
their charge to be a surprise, but McClernand' s men received 
it with prompt and hot resistance. Though the enemy's 
force at that point was three times as large as ours, the 
troops held their ground admirably through four hours' 
hard fighting with artillery and musketry. But the odds 
were too great, and our whole right wing and right center 
were driven far back, and almost rolled up. At that mo- 
ment the rebels, who were trying to cut their way out, 
might have escaped but for Dickey' s Illinois cavalry, which, 



1862.] "Are Their Haversacks Full?" 221 

by the merest chance, was drawn np across the road before 
them. Supposing it as strong on each side, in the woods, 
as across that narrow road, the enemy, wearied by hard 
fighting, came to a halt. 

Never was man wanted more sorely than Grant. He 
had heard the guns, and was galloping up when he met an 
aide, who told him the situation. At nine o'clock he 
reached our left. The battle was then suspended. Both 
sides were hesitating, and the enemy had one of our bat- 
teries. Smith explained that the fighting had been exclu- 
sively on our right. Grant instantly replied : — 

' ' If the enemy has massed so heavily on our right, he 
must have weakened his front, here on our left. Hold your- 
self in readiness to attack with your whole command. Look 
out for a place to make the assault, while I go over and see 
McClernand and Wallace." 

"I will be ready to advance," replied Smith, "when- 
ever you give the order." 

Grant rode on to the right. He found our troops dis- 
ordered and desponding. They had fought splendidly, but 
imagined the enemy in overwhelming force. A slight alarm 
might have driven the whole line back in panic. While 
the General was conversing with McClernand he heard a 
soldier say : — 

" The rebels have come out to fight several days. They 
have their knapsacks on, and their haversacks are full of 



' grub. 



"Are their haversacks full?" asked Grant eagerly, on 
catching this casual remark. 

Hard by was a little group of rebel prisoners in gray. 
Two or three- officers examined their haversacks, and 
brought one to the General. It contained three days' rations. 
The enemy's purpose and condition flashed upon him. He 
said hurriedly : — 

"Men defending a fort don't carry three days' rations, 
especially when making a charge, unless they are trying to get 
away. The rebels have been endeavoring to cut their way 
out, and wouldn't hesitate now if they were not badly 
damaged. Whichever party attacks now will whip." 



222 "Tell General Grant I'll Do It." C 1862 - 

The "sight of the master" detected that this was the 
supreme moment. In brief, earnest words he ordered 
McClernand and Wallace to be ready to assault the moment 
they should hear Smith's guns on the left, and he sent a re- 
quest to Foote to come up with his gun-boats and make a show 
of attacking to add to the enemy' s fears. Then he put spurs 
to his horse and galloped back to the left with the staff, 
pausing at each knot of straggling soldiers, to say :- 

" Prepare to attack. Get ready to go in at once. The 
enemy is growing desperate and trying to retreat. If we 
push him the victory is ours." 

The men did not believe much in the enemy's retreat- 
ing ; still, with freshened courage, they hurried toward the 
front. On reaching the left Grant found Smith, to whom 
Rawlins said : — 

" McClernand wants re-enforcements ; can t you send him 

some more troops \ " 

"He has been wanting them all day, and I've just sent 
him three regiments, which are as many as he needs," re- 
plied the old regular, in a tone indicative of no deep respect. 
Wellington, once asked if he gave the famous order at 
Waterloo, "Up, Guards, and at them," replied :— "JSTo. 
I don't remember what I said ; but I made no such foolish 
speech as that, I suppose I simply directed :—' Advance 
the line.' " So Grant and Smith now conversed on a move- 
ment which was to be historic, not in high heroics, but like 
two men talking over any business matter. 

" I think you had better make the main assault here," 
said the one. 

" I will try, sir," replied the other. 

By four o'clock all was ready. Two gun-boats had run 
up and were throwing shells at long range. Grant, who 
had now ridden toward the center, sent word to Smith 
to attack. He replied sententiously : — 
" Tell General Grant I'll do it." 

Then the veteran turned to his men, and briefly gave 
them orders. The Second Iowa was to lead. Smith formed 
it in two lines, thirty paces apart, took his place between 
them, and gave the word, " Forward ! " 



1862.] The Stars and Stripes Go Up. 223 

They went with a dash. While the artillery was pour- 
ing a hot fire into the rebel works, they rushed up, like 
school-boys on a race, over the roughest ground. Smith's 
eyes flashed with delight. This was the work he loved. 
In the teeth of a pattering shower of bullets, which soon grew 
to a terrible storm of grape and canister — through dense 
underbrush — up a steep hill — climbing fallen timber, slip- 
ping back on the snow, scrambling oyer slippery rocks, the 
column pushed forward. The flag- staff was almost shot off ; 
the flag itself was cut with fourteen bullets, and five succes- 
sive color-bearers dropped, one after another; but a sixth 
bore forward the undying banner, and the men never 
wavered. Right behind the advance rode Smith, hat in 
hand, his white hair and beard streaming in the wind, as 
he shouted words of encouragement. 

The rebels would fain have strengthened their right 
again, but Grant's assault was so severe along the entire 
line, that they could not spare a man for the weakened 
point. 

Smith' s men needed no encouragement. Without firing 
a single musket, they reached the ditch, poured down into 
it, then up the side and over the parapet, first by twos and 
threes, and then in squads. For brief minutes there was 
sharp hand to hand fighting, then the last Gray-coats, who 
were not captured, had fled, and the Blue-coats rent the 
heavens with their wild cheers, as the Stars and Stripes 
flew up. 

The moment the work was ours, its reversed guns, and our 
own pieces, which had dashed in behind steaming horses 
on a full run, were throwing shells among the retreating 
rebels, whom they compelled to fall back almost a mile, into 
the outworks of the fort itself. Darkness ended the fight. 
Smith had gained a position not absolutely commanding 
the fort, but holding the key to it, and enabling our artil- 
lerists to take nearly all the enemy's works in reverse. 
Meanwhile, on our right and center, McClernand and Wal- 
lace had recovered the ground and guns lost in the morning. 

That night, Grant and staff slept in a negro shanty on 
the left of our lines. They said, gleefully : — 



224 Consternation in the Rebel Camp. [i 8 °2. 

"We may liave to fight a couple of hours or so to-mor- 
row, hut that will he all." 

They were confident of getting a position early in the 
morning where they would have a plunging fire on the fort 
itself. After dark, Smith came into the little hut and gave 
an account of his charge. With the habit of our army in 
Flanders and elsewhere, he was always full of strange oaths. 
Now flushed with success, his narration was unusually rich 
in expletives. He said : — 

" I took the first regiment I came to, the Second Iowa, 
and divided it into two lines, ready to charge. Then I 
preached to the men. I made them a speech — the first I 
ever made in my life. I cheered with them ; I swore at 
them ; and, by — , I would have prayed with them if neces- 
sary. I told them, ' Fighting is my business ; I am here to do 
it, because the Government sent me. But you have volun- 
teered. You are here because you chose to be ; and now I 
expect } t ou to go in and do your duty.' And, by — , they 
did go in, and they did just as well as any regulars I ever 
saw in my life." 

The night witnessed consternation in the rebel camp. 
John B. Floyd, of Virginia, was in command. As Secretary 
of War under Buchanan he had atrociously betrayed his 
trust, by storing large quantities of Government arms in the 
South, that the rebels, in whose counsels he was, might 
seize them when ready to begin the war. Floyd had ar- 
rived but two days before and knew little of the fort. The 
second officer in rank was. Gideon J. Pillow, a weak and 
bombastic Tennessean, whom Floyd had superseded, and 
who had been there only five days. The third was Simeon 
B. Buckner, a Kentuckian, who had commanded the post 
before Pillow or Floyd, and was a far better soldier than 
either. 

The rebel leaders saw that the place must surrender. 
Floyd with the imagination which always haunts the guilty 
mind, alluding delicately to his past peculations, said : — 

" My peculiar relations with the Federal Government 
will not permit me to surrender. I turn the command over 
to General Pillow." 



1362.] An Intelligent Contraband's Information. 225 

Pillow, who seemed to fancy lie was playing euchre, 
replied : — 

' ' I pass it. There are no two men in the Confederacy 
whom the Yankees would rather have than us." 

Thus the command devolved upon Buckner, who was a 
graduate of West Point, and with a soldier' s sense of honor 
would not desert his men. Floyd seized two steamers, 
and with three thousand men escaped up the river. Pillow 
found his way out on a flatboat, and Forrest of Tennessee 
fled with a thousand cavalry, wading a stream south of the 
the fort. 

Of course, Grant did not know what was going on in 
the rebel camp, but he had more than a suspicion of it. 
Before daylight on that memorable Sunday morning, Smith, 
whose lines were nearest the enemy, sent to head- quarters 
the colored servant of a rebel officer. The negro, who had 
just deserted from Fort Donelson, seemed trustworthy, and 
declared that the enemy had been evacuating all night. 
Grant and the staff warned him that many lives might be 
risked on his information. They said : — 

"We shall depend on you, and if you deceive us we 
shall hang you." 

" All right, mass'r," replied the zealous African ; "you 
may if Pse deceiving you. I'se just come from de fort; 
dey's been a-goin' all night." 

Grant believed the statement, and immediately asked : — 

"Who Will go over with orders to McClernand and 
Wallace?" 

It was cheerless in the little cabin, for the fire had 
died out, the morning was cold, and it was still snowing. 
But the ever-ready Rawlins volunteered ; and just before 
dawn, rode over with orders that the two generals should 
attack vigorously along the entire line the moment they 
heard the first gun from Smith who was to begin the assault. 

A few minutes after Rawlins had gone, and just as the 
sleepers were becoming unconscious again, in walked Smith. 
On his front a bugler, accompanied by an officer with a 
white flag, had sounded a parley. The pickets saw him 
dimly in the twilight, and called him in. He bore a letter 



226 Grant and Bucknee Correspond. [ 1S62 - 

from Buckner, which Smith now delivered. Grant, shiver- 
ing on an inverted cracker-box, found light enough in the 
gray dawn to read the following : — 

" Head-quarters, Fort Donelson, February 16, 1862. 

"Sir: — In consideration of all the circumstances governing the present 
situation of affairs at this station, I propose to the commanding officer of the 
Federal forces the appointment of commissioners to agree upon terms of 
capitulation of the forces and post under my command ; and, in that view, 
suggest an armistice until twelve o'clock to-day. 

" I am, sir, very respectfully, your obedient servant, 

"S. B. Btjokneb, Brig.-Gen., C. S. A. 
"To Brigadier-General U. S. Grant, commanding United States forces 
"near Fort Donelson." 

The General read this without a word. Then he handed 

it to Smith, who read it also. 

Grant.— "Well, what do you think r 

Smith. — "I think, no terms with traitors, by I" 

The chief sat down, wrote this answer as fast as his pen 

could move, and passed it to Smith : — 

" IId.-qrs. Army tn tiik Field, ) 
Camp near Donelson, February 10, 1SG2. f 

" General S. B. Buoknee, Confederate Army : — 

u Yours of this date proposing armistice, and appointment of commis- 
sioners to settle terms of capitulation, is just received. JSTo terms except an 
unconditional and immediate surrender can oe accepted. I propose to move 
immediately upon your works. 

"I am, sir, very respectfully, your obedient servant, 

"U. S. Grant, Brig.-Gen." 

The gray-haired veteran read it, and exclaimed emphati- 
cally : — 

"By , it couldn't be better !" 

Then he went away with the dispatch. Not another 
word passed between them, and Smith did not remain in the 
cabin more than ten minutes. The phrase, afterward so 
famous, ' ' I propose to move immediately upon your 
works," was not in the least " buncombe," but literally 
expressed Grant's intentions. The moment Smith left, 
he dispatched Biggin to McClernand and Wallace, with in- 
structions to press forward right into the enemy's works 



1862 1 Fort Donelson Surrenders. 227 

as soon as the signal should be given. But Buckner made 
haste to reply : — 

" Head-quarters, Dover, Tenn., February 16, 1S62 

"To Brig.-Gen. U. S. Grant, U. S. Army :— 

" Sir : — The distribution of the forces under my command, incident to an 
unexpected change of commanders, and the overwhelming force under your 
command, compel me, notwithstanding the brilliant success of the Confed- 
erate arms yesterday, to accept the ungenerous and unchivalrous terms 
which you propose. 

" I am, sir, your very obedient servant, 

" S. B. Buckner, Brig.-Gen., C. S. A." 

Grant received this with his usual serenity, ordered his 
horse, and with his staff rode over to Buckner, whom he 
had known at the Military Academy, Buckner invited his 
guests to "breakfast, and gave them some vile Confederate 
coffee. Then the two enemies of an hour before, smoking 
pacifically, discussed the surrender. Buckner asked sub- 
sistence for his men, and kindnesses for some wounded offi- 
cers. Grant acceded to these requests. He decided, also, 
that officers might retain their side-arms and personal bag- 
gage, but that horses and all public property must be given 
up. Buckner was annoyed that Grant had been able to 
invest Donelson with so small a force. 

" If I had been in command," said he, " you would not 
have reached the fort so easily." 

" If you had," replied Grant, "I should have waited 
for re-enforcements. But I knew Pillow would never come 
out of his works to fight." 

Smith soon arrived. Buckner, being an old army officer, 
had known him well, and as they shook hands he said : 

" That charge of yours last night, was a splendid affair." 

" Yes, yes," replied the veteran ; " the men did well— 
they did well ; but it was no affair of mine ; I simply 
obeyed General Grant's orders." 

Grant permitted the Second Iowa, in recognition of its 
gallantry, to raise its flag over the captured fort. Before 
noon our troops, in bright blue, marched in from three 
points, with streaming banners, gleaming muskets, bands 
playing, men singing and cheering, and the gun-boats firing 
a salute. 



228 



"I Propose to Move 



[1862. 



ex J 



V 



i-4 





^.J ^ - 



'5 



l\ 



1862.] 



Immediately Upon your Works." 



229 




230 



"— Compel me to Accept the 



[1862 









it 







^ 




1862.] Ungenerous and Unchivalrous Terms." 231 




232 Wonder of the Confederate Troops. [ 18 °2. 

The rebels, in faded gray, stood mournfully beside their 
great piles of muskets and shot-guns, wondering at the 
"Northern horde." Many, from the mountains of Tennes- 
see and Kentucky, were Union men at heart. Their garb 
was motley. Some had blankets wrapped around them; 
others, old pieces of carpet, quilts, and buffalo robes. 
Their arms consisted of single and double barreled shot- 
guns, old Kentucky rifles, and flint-lock muskets, with here 
and there a modern piece. 

All the lighting had been in the woods. There were some 
leaves still on the trees, and the confederates in gray were 
so near the color of the landscape that it was difficult 
to detect them. Our men came unsuspectingly right upon 
them, to meet deadly reception from their double-barreled 
shot-guns, the most effective weapons in a close contest. 

The rebel water-battery was very strong, but the fort 
itself was a wilderness of zigzags and abatis spreading over 
a large area, formidable to the eye but really weak, and not 
bearing any logical relation to each other. 

The hills and ravines, so lately torn and crimsoned by 
fierce fighting, are now smoothed by rains and overgrown 
with shrubs and vines. The tremendous fortifications can 
hardly be seen, and ere long it will be impossible to trace 
their outlines. The thick mounds, too, have almost disap- 
peared. Where they sleep who died for us, kindly Nature 
strews her waving grass and her springing flowers, just as 
she covers the scars and wounds in our hearts with her 
fragrant lilies of resignation and her tender willows of 
memory. 



1862.] An Emphatic Rebuke to Buckner. 233 



CHAPTER XIX. 



CURBED. 



Buckner was a good-looking, stout gentleman, of middle 
age, with low forehead, and thin iron-gray hair, mustaches, 
and whiskers. He wore an overcoat of light blue with an 
enormous cape and sleeves laced with gold, and a black 
hat with a tall plume. Notwithstanding his martial cos- 
tume, his manner and tone were those of a Methodist 
exhorter rather than a soldier. 

The prisoners were treated with great kindness. A 
steamer was assigned to Buckner and his staff, and supplies 
issued to his men on his own requisition. But Grant ordered 
that they should only be allowed one blanket apiece. The 
extra ones, chiefly captured in our camps when Pillow was 
trying to cut his way out, were distributed among Union 
soldiers, many of whom were without any. Grant also 
ordered the side-arms, which some of the prisoners had 
misused, to be taken from them and kept until they should 
reach Cairo. The next evening Buckner entered head-quar- 
ters, dropped into a chair, and began this conversation : — 

Buckner. — " Put me in irons, General ; put me in 
irons !" 

Grant. — "What do you mean V 9 

Buckner. — "Your troops are simply robbing my men. 
They are stripping them of every thing. They are taking 
the officers' arms, which, by your agreement, they were to 
retain. They are even stealing their blankets, and declare 
that it is by your orders." 

Grant. — " This compels me to say things which I hoped 
to avoid speaking of, because I wanted to save your feelings. 
Your men have committed the grossest outrages. I know 
you can not approve of them, and I suppose you could 



234 A Great Panic in Nashville. [1862. 

scarcely prevent them. But on the morning of the surren- 
der, one of your officers, growing angry in discussion, shot 
Major Mudd, of the Second Illinois Cavalry, in the "back. 
Your soldiers have stripped my dead, and left them naked on 
the field, while it was in your possession. They have taken 
every blanket from prisoners, and been guilty of many 
other things which I do not feel like detailing. The weather 
is cold, and my troops need these blankets. By the laws of 
war they are entitled to them ; for in an unconditional 
surrender, every thing belongs to the victors. They are 
to remain in the field. Your men are going to Cairo, 
where the Government has plenty of supplies, and will 
see them properly cared for. Our soldiers, falling into 
Confederate hands, have been almost starved, and are kept 
in the foulest prisons. Yours receive here the same 
accommodations and fare as my own. I have simply 
disarmed them, because I don't want my officers assassin- 
ated. They can get their side-arms again by applying for 
them at Cairo." 

Grant' s staff had never heard him speak so vehemently 
on any subject. Buckner was completely silenced. He 
sat a few minutes without a word, then got up, said 
"good evening," returned to his quarters, and made no fur- 
ther complaints. 

The capture of Fort Donelson carried consternation 
through the South. At first, a rebel victory was reported. 
Nashville, being most deeply interested, first comprehended 
the disaster. Its papers, on Sunday morning, headed their 
news : — 

"Enemy Retreating — Glorious Result— Our Boys Fol- 
lowing and Peppering their Rear — A Complete Victory." 

But just as the worshipers were going to church, exult- 
ant with these tidings, came word that there was a dread- 
ful mistake, and that the fort had fallen. The prayer- 
bells were changed to alarm-bells, for Donelson was the 
door to Nashville. Our gun-boats were expected at once, 
and wild panic prevailed. Public stores were thrown open, 
and everybody allowed to carry off provisions and cloth- 
ing. At the churches where service had begun, congrega- 



1862.] Halleck Guilty of a Joke. 235 

tions broke up in dismay. Women and children rushed 
through the streets, trunks were thrown from windows, 
Ibank officers started South with their specie, citizens 
thronged the railways, and left in vehicles by all the roads, 
and hack hire rose to twenty-five dollars an hour. Nash- 
ville soon fell into Union hands, never to be recovered by 
the enemy. 

The North, was correspondingly elate. In the Senate, 
Andrew Johnson, of Tennessee, who, notwithstanding his 
later defection, was then one of the boldest and most earnest 
of Union leaders, interrupted business to say : — 

' ' I have a little announcement here, which I wish made 
by way of episode. It is so seldom we get any thing of 
the kind that I think there can not be any objection to it. 
I merely wish to have the Senate see that the Union is going 
along." 

Thereupon the clerk read Foote's report that Fort 
Henry was captured. A few days later the news of Donel- 
son came. The dispatch called out tremendous enthusiasm. 
Grave senators threw up their hats and canes, and shouted 
with gratification, and the galleries were still more boister- 
ous. In the House, Schuyler Colfax' s announcement of the 
victory was followed by tumultuous applause from the floor 
and the galleries, which broke into deafening cheers for the 
General when Washburne stated that "our land forces 
were commanded by U. S. Grant, of Illinois, and of Galena 
at that." 

Even the stolid soul of Halleck was a little stirred. 
He wrote an account of the victory, and posted it on the 
hotel bulletin with his own hand. An excited crowd 
instantly gathered, to whom, with unusual humor, he 
growled : — 

' ' Humph ! If Grant' s a drunkard and can win such 
victories, I shall issue an order that any man found sober 
in St. Louis to-night, be punished by fine and imprison- 
ment." 

The newspapers sounded the national jubilation. 
Here is the substance of the earliest telegraphic dis- 
patches : — 



236 The North Wild with Delight. [1862. 

Cincinnati. — Great enthusiasm on 'Change. Steamer leaves to-night 
with twelve surgeons and one hundred boxes of supplies for Donelson ; three 
thousand dollars subscribed for wounded ; national salutes, general illumina- 
tion, bonfires, and fireworks. 

Indianapolis. — Great excitement ; firing of one hundred guns. Special 
train for Donelson, full of hospital physicians and volunteer nurses. Citi- 
zens' meeting in the court-house to make arrangements for the wounded to 
be sent home. 

Chicago. — Universal rejoicing; business suspended; Board of Trade ad- 
journed ; bells ringing ; schools dismissed ; men embracing each other on 
the streets ; strangers stopping to cheer together ; nurses, supplies, and 
surgeons starting, and large subscriptions for the wounded. 

Boston. — A furore of jubilation, never equaled within the memory of 
living men. 

Detroit, Columbus, Buffalo, Baltimore, etc. — Bells ringing, steam- 
whistles blowing, flags flying ; bonfires, illuminations, and immense im- 
promptu meetings. 

Neither Donelson nor Henry was well situated or 
well defended. Both would have been strongly garrisoned 
and commanded by able officers, had the General waited 
one week longer before attacking. It was his characteristic 
promptness which made victory so easy — indeed, which 
gave us victory at all. 

Grant's official report consisted of only nine hundred 
words. * Like Byron, he awoke to find himself famous. 
His name was on every tongue. Four days after the surren- 
der the President made and the Senate confirmed him a major- 
general of volunteers. Never did soldier earn promotion 
better. He had brought all Kentucky and nearly all Ten- 
nessee into our hands, necessitated the evacuation of Colum- 
bus and Nashville, and carried the Union lines hundreds of 
miles farther south. He had shown the beginning of the 
end. He had delivered at Cairo fourteen thousand six hun- 
dred and twenty prisoners — a number almost as large as the 
force with which he first invested the fort. He had taken 
many more guns than those he attacked with. ~No such 
victory had ever been seen on this continent. No future 

* Stanton, late Secretary of War, asserts that he never received an official letter 
from Grant which covered more than one page of letter-paper. 



1362.] Grant's Praise on all Tongues. 237 

triumphs in the war were to be of equal importance, except 
those won by Grant himself. This, too, coming at a period 
of darkness and discouragement, excited a delight which 
successes failed to kindle after they became a habit. One 
of the many exultant poems of the hour ran : — 

" O gales that dash the Atlantic's swell 
Along our rocky shores, 
Whose thunders diapason well 
New England's loud hurrahs; 

" Bear to the prairies of the West 
The echoes of our joy, 
The prayer that springs in every breast — 
1 God bless thee, Illinois!' " 

The campaign had brought Grant into contact with two 
men who afterward won world-wide renown as his lieu- 
tenants and friends. One was William T. Sherman, who 
had been superintendent of the Military Academy of Lou- 
isiana. When that State began her secession movement, he 
instantly asked to be relieved, declaring, in a manly letter, 
' ' On no earthly account will I do any act or think any 
thought hostile to the old Government of the United States." 

The outbreak of the war found him president of a Cin- 
cinnati street railway company. He promptly re-entered 
the service, and was a colonel at Bull Run, where his cool- 
ness and efficiency surprised friends familiar with his ex- 
citable temperament. At that early day he was one of the 
very few who comprehended the magnitude of the rebel- 
lion. When President Lincoln called out seventy-five 
thousand men for three months, he said : — 

' ' You might as well attempt to put out the flames of a 
burning house with a squirt-gun. You ought to organize 
the wliole military power of the North at once for a des- 
perate struggle." 

He was afterward made a brigadier-general of volunteers, 
and placed in command of Kentucky. He was never timid 
about stating his opinions, and now asserted, that to deal ef- 
fectively with the rebels in the West he wanted two hundred 
thousand men — ten times the enemy's force on his front. 



238 Encounters Sherman and McPherson. [isg2. 

Subsequent experience proved him right. But then we were 
all looking for "peace in sixty days," and Sherman's de- 
mand appeared midsummer madness. Coupled with eccen- 
tric acts, it provoked the newspapers into declaring him 
insane, and the Government into shelving him at St. Louis. 

But when Grant started for Donelson, Halleck sent 
him to Cairo to forward supplies and re-enforcements. He 
did this with the utmost zeal, and, though ranking both 
Grant and Smith, offered to take the field and serve under 
them. This unusual readiness to waive rank for the good 
of the country quite won Grant' s heart, and was the begin- 
ning of a friendship like that of David and Jonathan. 
Under any superior, Sherman would have deserved well of 
the Republic ; but it needed a nature like Grant' s — large, 
generous, incapable of being disturbed by little ebulli- 
tions of impatience and arrogance — to make his pure patri- 
otism and his splendid military genius known and seen of 
all men. 

The other was James B. McPherson, a young lieutenant- 
colonel of engineers, whom Halleck sent from his own staff. 
Grant soon put a high estimate upon his military qualifica- 
tions, and regarded him with even warmer personal affec- 
tion than he gave to Sherman. 

To his former Galena friend, who had now joined the 
army and called to pay his respects, the General said : — 

'•Well, Rowley, our speculations have come true. 
Rawlins and you and I are all in the service." 

After Donelson, Rowley accepted a position as aide, with 
the rank of captain. He ultimately became a brigadier- 
general, and proved a loyal and valuable subordinate until 
after the Wilderness campaign, when ill health compelled 
him to resign. 

Mrs. Grant and the children spent a few days with the 
General, and then went to his father's. The negro coach- 
man, who took them across from Cincinnati to Covington, 
was lodged in jail for entering Kentucky without a permit. 
A grand jury indicted him for the heinous crime, and he 
wisely forfeited his bail— one hundred dollars — rather than 
trust himself to the tender mercies of neutral Kentucky. 



1862] Shabby Treatment from Halleck:. 239 

Grant was now in command of the undefined " Dis- 
trict of West Tennessee." On the twenty-seventh of Feb- 
ruary he visited Nashville, to confer with Buell. There, 
in company with McClernand and W. H. L. Wallace, he 
called upon the widow of President Polk. She received 
the officers with frigid courtesy, hoped her husband's 
tomb would protect her home against depredations, but 
showed hearty sympathy with the enemies of the country 
which had done him honor. 

If Grant's district had any boundaries, he was kept in 
utter ignorance of them. He went to Nashville solely in 
pursuance of his official duty, spent only one day there, and 
promptly reported his visit and return. Nevertheless, Hal- 
leck sent bitter complaints of him to Washington, for 
" leaving his district without authority," and, though Grant 
had written him almost every day, he asserted : — 

"I can get no returns, no reports, no information of any kind, from him. 
Satisfied with his victory, he sits down and enjoys it, without any regard to 
the future. I am worn out and tired by this neglect and inefficiency. 11 

As the climax to this shabby treatment, he sent a junior 
officer, C. F. Smith, in command of an important expedition 
up the Tennessee, and kept Grant at Fort Henry, in disgrace. 
After several unmerited rebukes, which he bore with great 
patience, Grant asked to be relieved from duty in the de- 
partment, on the ground that enemies must be making 
trouble between them. But at last Halleck' s fit of bile 
passed away, and he restored the General to the command 
of his army. 

Smith's expedition had started to attack Corinth, an 
important railway-crossing, twenty-five miles south of the 
river. Grant joined it on the seventeenth of March. Smith 
promptly congratulated him upon being restored to the 
position ''from which you were so unceremoniously and, as 
I think, so unjustly stricken down." 

The troops had not been able to march, as the whole 
country was overflowed. Smith, now over sixty, was very 
ill from the effects of exposure at Fort Donelson, where he 
lay all night upon the snow, and from a recent fall over the 



240 Commands a new Expedition. [1862. 

side of a steamer into a boat alongside, in which the corner 
of a plank cut his leg to the bone. His head-quarters were 
at Savanna.* His soldiers were at Pittsburg, nine miles 
above, the landing-place of freight for Corinth. Pittsburg 
consisted of a store-house at the water' s edge, and a log 
dwelling at the top of the steep bluff, a hundred yards 
back. 

Beauregard was concentrating an army at Corinth. Grant 
was extremely anxious to disperse it, but Halleck replied f 
to his application, "Remain where you are until you are 
fortified and get re-enforcements." 

Chafing at his compelled inaction, he conferred with 
Smith — who had moved up to Pittsburg — upon the advis- 
ability of fortifying. The veteran stoutly opposed it, de- 
claring : — 

' ' By , I want nothing better than to have the rebels 

come out and attack us. We can whip them all to . 

Our men suppose we have come here to fight, and if we 
begin to spade, it will make them think we fear the enemy." 

Buell' s army, forty thousand strong, was marching south- 
ward through Tennessee to join Grant. The latter, eager 
to attack while Beauregard's force was still weak, sent 
Hillyer to St. Louis to explain matters orally to Halleck. 
The department commander received the aide with custom- 
ary frigidity. Hillyer explained at length the position and 
desire of his chief. Halleck heard him without a nod of 
acquiescence or a single demur, but with a dead calm rest- 
ing on his stolid face, and when Hillyer concluded, asked : — 

' ' Where are you stopping, captain % ' ' 

" At the Planters' House." 

" Very well ; your dispatches will be sent there in two 
hours. Return immediately with them to General Grant. 
If there is no steamer going up to-day, apply to the quarter- 
master, and he will furnish you with one. Good morning." 

The dispatches contained only a repetition of Halleck' s 
peremptory orders to avoid a general engagement. 

Toward the last of March, a question about rank arose 

* Map, page 198. f March twentieth. 



1862.] A Bad Fall from His Horse. 241 

between McClernand and Smith. Grant, perhaps fearing 
that Halleck might decide in McClernand' s favor, settled 
the matter by removing his own head-quarters to Pittsburg, 
taking general command and leaving Smith in charge of his 
division. Each day Grant ran up on his steamer the Tigress, 
reviewed troops, conferred with division commanders, and 
in the evening returned to Savanna where Rawlins still 
kept an office to forward arriving troops to their proper 
destinations. 

After the second of April there was daily skirmishing. 
The General was constantly on the alert, and instructed his 
subordinates to be prompt and vigilant. 

After dark on the evening of the fourth he heard artil- 
lery firing at the front, for Pittsburg, though nine miles from 
Savanna by river, is only six in a direct line. It was rain- 
ing hard, but he and the staff repaired by steamer to the 
Landing and rode two miles out, where they met W. H. 
L. Wallace, who told them that Sherman's pickets on the 
Corinth road had been attacked, but that the enemy was 
easily repulsed. 

The night was very dark and on the return Grant's horse 
slipped on a smooth log, and fell, nearly breaking the ankle 
of his rider. The General suffered excruciating pain, and 
was lamed for several weeks. 

On Saturday, the fifth, Grant received a dispatch from 
Buell: — U I shall be in Savanna myself to-morrow with 
one, perhaps two, divisions. Can I meet you there ?" He 
replied : — "I will be here to meet you to-morrow. Enemy 
at or near Corinth ; from sixty thousand to eighty thousand ; 
information not reliable." 

Feeling uneasy about Beauregard, he sent Sherman a 
note by McPherson, asking the condition of things, and 
whether it was safe for him to remain and see Buell the next 
morning. Sherman replied : — 

" The enemy has cavalry in our front, and I think two regiments of in- 
fantry and one battery of artillery six miles out. * * * I do not appre- 
hend any tiling like an attach on our 'position" 

In the afternoon Nelson, commanding Buell' s first divi- 
sion, reached Savanna, and dined with our General and staff, 



242 Buell's Aemy Approaching in the Reap. [i862. 

who took their meals in the brick house of a Union man 
named Cherry, on the bank of the river. In the evening 
Grant wrote Halleck : — "I have scarcely the faintest idea 
of an attack (general one) being made upon us, but will be 
pre ared should such a thing take place." 

Buell, who moved with each of his divisions like clock- 
work, just so far apart, and traveled himself between the 
first and second, encamped within three miles of Savanna, 
but Grant did not know that he was so near. 

So on that dark Saturday night, Grant was at Savanna ; 
Lew Wallace's division of five thousand effectives was at 
Crump's, five miles above ; and the rest of the army, consist- 
ing of thirty -three thousand effectives, in five divisions, was 
encamped on the south bank of the Tennessee, four miles 
farther, Sherman held the front, three miles from the 
river, and near a Methodist log-chapel, known as Shiloh 
Meeting-House. 



1362.] a Rebel Council in the Woods. 243 



CHAPTER XX. 

SHILOH. 

For three days a rebel army from Corinth, forty thou- 
sand strong, had been floundering through the mud with 
superhuman energy, expecting to attack Grant before Buell 
could possibly arrive. It was led by Albert Sidney John- 
ston, a popular and able general, with Beauregard second 
in command. 

It was almost impossible to move artillery, and it took 
Johnston's troops two days to march fifteen miles. They 
had hoped to attack on Friday, but not until Saturday 
after dark did they encamp noiselessly, within three- 
quarters of a mile of Grant's pickets. In front they built 
no fires, but lay comfortless upon logs or the drenched 
ground, speaking only in low tones. A mile farther back 
their generals held a council of war. Several famous rebel 
leaders were there. 

Johnston, now sixty, had been a soldier for forty years. 
He was tall, erect, with high forehead, bald crown, and 
below it straight locks of iron-gray hair, and heavy curled 
mustache. His face was modest and rather French in aspect. 

Beauregard, light and slender, with twinkling eyes, 
pointed beard, and French accent, enjoyed a high military 
reputation among the soldiers whom he had collected with 
great care and energy. To-night he promised that twenty- 
four hours later they should sleep in the Union tents, and 
he was said to declare that the next day he would water his 
horse in the Tennessee or in hell. He was in good spirits, 
for his scouts reported Buell yet more than a day's march 
from the river. 

Hardee, tall, broad-shouldered, with low forehead, heavy 
mustache, beard on his chin, and stolid, good-humored 
face, had compiled our Infantry Tactics, and been in com- 



244 Sunday Morning Dawns. t 18G2 - 

mand of cadets at West Point, and was esteemed a good 
soldier. 

Bragg was of hot temper and stooping in figure, with 
haggard, thoughtful face, wide at the forehead and narrow 
at the chin, bushy eyebrows, iron-gray beard, and wavy 
hair. 

Polk was portly and broad-chested, with a countenance 
suggesting loye of the good things of this life rather than, the 
sacred calling he had left. 

Breckinridge, with strong, prominent features, and erect, 
manly form, was more a politician than a soldier ; but he 
had been Vice-President of the United States, and was the 
idol of the rebel troops from his native Kentucky. 

Standing before a glowing log-lire in the silent woods 
under dripping trees, these captains arranged details for at- 
tacking at daylight. They were disappointed at arriving one 
day late, but confident of easy success At ten o' clock the 
council* broke up. 

At the same hour the lame Union General at Savanna 
bade his staff good-night, saying : — 

"We will move our quarters to Pittsburg to-morrow. 
We must breakfast early, and while our traps are being got 
on board, ride out and have a talk with Buell before we go 
up the river." 

The morrow dawned — a fair April Sunday. Grant, out 
of bed before daylight, sent his usual daily dispatch by 
steamer down to Fort Henry — the nearest telegraph station 
— to be forwarded to Halleck. 

Just afterward he learned that rebel prisoners, captured 
two days before, were unusually defiant, and, in reply to 
bantering from our men, muttered ominously, "Never mind, 
you Yankees will catch in a day or two." 

This incident, coupled with the recent activity on his 
front, put an end to his skepticism, and convinced him that 
a battle was imminent. 

The boats got up steam, the horses were saddled, and 
about six o' clock the General and staff sat down to breakfast. 

* Described from Swinton's "Decisive Battles of the War," and other authorities. 



1862.] The Roah of Battle Begins. 245 

Before tliey were half through a faint rumbling was heard, 

and Webster said : — 
"That's firing." 

" Yes," replied Grant, " it sounds very much like it." 
The favorite orderly, a sad-faced, mustached Frenchman, 

called Napoleon, came in, and raising his hand in military 

salute, exclaimed: — 

" General, there's terrific firing up the river." 

All stepped out of doors. By this time the earth shook 

as with rolling thunder. Webster asked : — 

" Where is it, at Crump's, or Pittsburg Landing?" 

"I am trying to determine," answered Grant. "Very 

heavy, isn't it? I think it's at Pittsburg. Orderly, take 

these horses right on the boat, and tell the captain to make 

ready for starting at once. Come, gentlemen, 'tis time to be 



moving." 



Hurriedly buckling on his sword, and leaning upon 
Webster, he hobbled down the bank and on board. There 
he wrote to Buell, that cannonading up the river, indicating 
a battle, made it impossible to wait for him, adding: — "I 
have been looking for this, but did not believe the attack 
would be made before Monday or Tuesday." 

Simultaneously he dictated, through Rawlins, an order 
to Nelson to move his division promptly up opposite Pitts- 
burg. Handing the dispatch to Hilly er, he remarked : — 

" Have him hurry. Perhaps Squire Walker here can 
find him guides." 

Walker replied that he could. 

< ' Very well, take two guides to Nelson, and then ride to 
Buell and get him to march up the rest of his forces as quick 
as possible." 

The General and staff steamed up the river. The roar 
grew deafening. At Crump' s, Lew Wallace was standing 
upon the guard of his head-quarters' steamer, and while the 
Tigress slackened, Grant said to him : 

" General, have your baggage and camp equipage moved 
right down to the bank, and your men ready to march at a 
moment's notice." 

"They are already under arms," replied Wallace. 



24(3 



Grant Reaches the Field. 



[1861 



Grant gave hasty directions for changing their positions 
in anticipation of a possible attack, and went on. At Pitts- 
burg he debarked, was helped upon his horse, and gal- 
loped with the rest toward the front. 

For several miles from the Landing the ground is rocky, 
densely wooded, and full of ravines. There was not a 
breastwork in front of our men, who were mostly raw re- 
cruits and thousands of whom had not yet learned to han- 
dle their muskets efficiently. But their position was natu- 
rally very strong. Behind, was the Tennessee. Their right 
rested on Snake Creek, and their left on Lick Creek, three 
miles apart, and both unfordable. Then directly on their 
right-front was Owl Creek, which flows into Snake. The 
line marked "1" in this diagram* shows their position at 
the beginning of the contest : — 




THE FIELD AND THE UNION LINES AT SHILOH. 

Sherman, a little in advance, held our right, and Stuart the 
left, with Hurlbut, W. II. L. Wallace, McClernand, and Pren- 
tiss between. It was now half-past eight. In the dense forests 
on the front fighting was already fierce, and the wounded 



* Badeau's " Military History of Grant." 



18G2.J YlGOE OF THE REBEL ASSAULT. 247 

and fugitives began to throng back toward the river. Grant, 
expecting Nelson's division to come up within two hours, 
was altogether at ease. Every aide being busy, he said to 
Captain Baxter, his quartermaster : — 

"You will have to do staff duty. Go down to Crump's, 
and tell Lew Wallace to move up at once by the river road, 
leaving only guard enough for his boats and baggage." 

At Baxter' s request this order was put in writing. 

Smith had posted our army, with the river and the creeks 
so protecting its rear and Hanks, that it was vulnerable 
only on the front. There the rebels assaulted with great vigor, 
first encountering Prentiss' rawest regiments. At dawn 
an officer of the day, detecting rebel cavalry near our pickets, 
sent out two infantry companies to disperse it. In five min- 
utes the men came back pell-mell, pursued by the enemy. 

Many of our troops were yet asleep, but officers were 
alert ; the long roll was beaten ; and all along the line were 
heard the shouts " Turn out ! Fall in !" 

The troops of Prentiss, Sherman, and McClernand took 
their places with exceeding promptness, but an overwhelm- 
ing force soon swept them away. Sherman' s right on Snake 
Creek held the key point. To that he clung with the grip 
of death, and upon it, as upon a pivot, the rest of our line 
swung far back, until almost at right angles with its original 
position. 

Grant was all along the front, encouraging his division 
generals, but hampering them with few instructions. At 
ten o'clock he rode to Sherman, whose gallantry and cool- 
ness deserved and received his enthusiastic praise. 

" I fear we shall run out of cartridges," said Sherman. 

" Oh !" replied the chief, " I have provided for that." 

Failure in this would have been failure in every thing ; 
but all day, over the narrow, crowded roads from the river, 
ammunition wagons, under Pride, of the staff, came promptly 
forward. 

Grant rode over to the left. About eleven o'clock, Row- 
ley, returning to Sherman, found him standing among his 
troops with his left hand resting on a tree, while he gazed 
eagerly forward toward the skirmishers. 



248 Sherman Wins Green Laurels. [1862. 

Rowley. — " General Grant sent me to see how yon are 
getting along." 

Sherman. — " Tell him, if he has any men to spare I can 
nse them ; if not, I will do the best I can. We are holding 
them pretty well jnst now — pretty well — but it's as hot 
as ." 

Rowley, noticing a white handkerchief wrapped about 
Sherman's hand, asked: — 

" Why, general, are you wounded ?" 

Sherman looked down wonderingly as if he had just dis- 
covered it, and answered : — 

" Well, yes ; but that don't begin to hurt like this d — d 
thing on my shoulder, which I suppose hasn't left any mark 
whatever." 

A spent ball had struck his shoulder-strap. His horse, 
too, had been shot under him, bnt he was the animating 
spirit of the entire right-front and center/ 5 ' If he was 
insane, it was with the inspired madness of heroes and 
martyrs. All around him were excited orderlies and officers, 
but, though his face was besmeared with powder and blood, 
battle seemed to have cooled his usually hot nerves. 

Our line was steadily giving way. After returning to 
Grant, Rowley said : — 

" General, this thing looks pretty squally, don't it?" 

"Well, not so very bad. We've got to light against 
time now. Wallace must be here very soon." 

Firing grew sharp upon the left, where our troops were 
breaking badly. The chief and his staff galloped to a little 
open field in front of a deserted cabin. Across the field was 
a rebel battery, which instantly opened on them. The first 
shell struck just in front of the General. 

Grant (spurring up). — "We must ride fast here." 

As he spoke, ' ' zip ' ' came another shell passing under his 
steed. 

Grant. — " Pretty loud call that for my horse's legs." 

Rowley. — "I think it's a pretty loud call for your 
legs." 

* He was promptly made a major-general, his commission dating on that day. 






i862.]"i Haven't Despaired of Whipping Them." 249 

The party rode behind the house a moment, "but shells 
crashed through the roof covering them with shingles. 

Grant — " The old building don't seem to be very good 
shelter ; suppose we move on." 

As they did so, a bullet struck the General' s scabbard 
and threw it. up into the air. The sword dropped out and 
was never recovered. 

Beyond the field in the edge of a wood they found our 
troops. Men fought from tree to tree only a few yards 
apart, the rebels shouting: "How about Bull Run?" 
and our men retorting : " How about Fort Donelson V 

Our lines steadily contracted. Organizations were utterly 
shattered. The destruction of life had been enormous. 
That fiery front witnessed more sturdy and obstinate fight- 
ing than any other battle of the war. But the rear saw dis- 
graceful scenes. Panic-stricken fugitives, shut in between 
the creeks and the river, swarmed to the Landing bv thou- 
sands. Grant sent back Rowley with orders to try and per- 
suade them forward, and then return to his chief. 

Rowley. — "Where shall I find you ?" 

Grant.— "Probably at head- quarters.* If you don't, 
come to the front wherever you hear the heaviest firing." 

It was now past noon. Where were the re-enforcements % 
Nelson had not been heard from, and a second messenger 
who had been sent several hours later than Baxter, re- 
turned and reported that Lew. Wallace— owing to some 
inexplicable misunderstanding about his orders— had not 
yet left Crump's. Grant replied sharply that a division 
general ought to take his troops wherever the firing was, 
even without orders, and dispatched first Rowley, and then 
Rawlins and McPherson to hurry him forward, bidding 
them not to spare their horses. 

At two, p. M., hearing thatBuell had arrived, Grant rode 
down and found him upon the Tigress. After hurried greet- 
ings the two generals forced their way through the sicken- 
ing crowd up the river bank. In vain did they beg the 
stragglers to go to the front, and assure them of victory. 

* The little log-building near the river. 



250 Death of Albert Sidney Johnston. [i 8G 2. 

The officers hid, but the men faced their shame. Buell 
asked : — 

" What preparations have you made for retreating — " 

"Why," interrupted Grant eagerly, "I haven't de- 
spaired of whipping them yet." 

" Of course ; but in case of defeat % " 

"Well, we could make a bridge across the river with 
these boats and protect it with artillery. But if we do have 
to retreat, there won't be many men left to cross." 

Buell glanced at the field, then rode back to hurry up his 
own troops ; and through the battle gave to Grant zealous 
and soldierly co-operation. 

At three o' clock the rebels met with a sore misfortune. 
While directing a desperate charge on our left, Johnston, 
their commander, sitting upon his horse near McClernand's 
captured quarters, was struck in the thigh by a piece of 
shell, which cut a deep gash. He paid no attention to it, 
but continued to give orders until he turned pale and reeled 
in the saddle. 

" Are you hurt?" asked an aide and relative. 

" Yes, I fear mortally." 

A moment after he fell from his horse, and died in the 
arms of his friend. 

Beauregard succeeded to the command. Our troops re- 
coiled before the charge, which was still pressed, though with 
less vigor. In that dense wood, Prentiss 1 division, failing 
to learn that the rest of the line had fallen back, was sur- 
rounded, and the general and twenty-two hundred men — all 
that were left — captured. At the same time, W. II. L. Wal- 
lace, one of our ablest officers, fell mortally wounded, on 
the front of his bleeding and shattered division. 

This was the gloomiest moment of the day. All Grant' s 
subordinates were depressed and anxious. On the right, 
Sherman still clung to Snake Creek, though farther back 
than in the morning, but the rest of the line, shortened 
more than one-half, had swung around until its left rested 
on the river, two miles in the rear of its first position. Just 
in front a ravine now afforded admirable ground for de- 
fense, and here Webster had opportunely planted sixty field- 



1862.] Union Troops make a Final Stand. 251 

pieces and siege guns. The enemy, flushed with victory, 
came charging forward. But he had now approached 
within easy range of the gun-boats, and they opened furi- 
ously upon him. Our infantry, also, made vigorous resist- 
ance, and Webster, riding along behind the artillery, 
shouted encouragingly : — 

" Stand firm, boys ; they can never carry this line in the 
world." 

The boys did stand firm, and though neither the land nor 
gun-boat cannons did much damage, the worn-out rebels hesi- 
tated. This was extremely significant, and the chief, hitherto 
unmoved, showed his satisfaction by a sigh of relief and a 
faint smile. Then he went over to the cheerful Sherman, 
to whom he said : — 

"We will hold on for the rest of the day, and Buell will 
be up very soon. 1 ' 

Both agreed that the enemy had expended his fury ; and 
Grant remarked that during a similar period of hesitancy on 
both sides, at Donelson, he had ordered Smith' s charge and 
won the victory. 

At five o'clock, he was standing among the wounded 
and dying, just behind the batteries, and conversing with 
an officer, when Carson, his scout, reported to him, and then 
fell back a few feet. A moment after, a shot knocked off 
the scout's head, bespattering the clothing of the serene 
General with blood. 

Misapprehensions on the part of two subordinates — both 
excellent and patriotic soldiers — had proved serious and 
well nigh fatal. Kelson did not leave Savanna until an hour 
after noon, but now he arrived with his splendid troops. 
"Here we are, General," lie said, with the military 
salute, "we don't know many fine points or nice evolu- 
tions, but if you want stupidity and hard fighting, I reckon 
we are the men for you."'" 

* Nelson, a Kentuckian, formerly of the navy, was an able general, but extremely 
irascible and violent. Six months after this battle, in the Gait House, Louisville, he 
was grossly abusive to a subordinate, General Jeff. C. Davis, and finalh r struck him 
in the face. Davis procured a revolver in the next room and shot Nelson dead ; and 
a court-martial acquitted him. 



252 The Night Aftek the Battle. 18G2 -1 

They were placed in position, "but only fired a few shots 
that night. After dark, Lew. Wallace — who had got on a 
wrong road — also reached the field. Had he and Nelson 
been present earlier, precious lives would have been saved, 
and a narrow escape converted into an overwhelming 
triumph. 

The tiring died away. The long April Sunday was 
ended. The tight had continued for eleven hours. " The 
enemy drove us all day, but it took him all day to drive us." 

Beauregard fulfilled his promise — his men did sleep 
in our camps. They had taken many prisoners and field- 
pieces, and driven our lines back to the river. But they 
had also lost thousands of comrades, besides their general, 
— who was a host in himself, — and had made two fatal 
mistakes : — 1. The rich plunder of our camps scattered and 
demoralized them, and took away half their efficiency. 2. 
They faltered at the supreme moment. Their assault after 
Johnston' s death was feeble. Had they pressed that ai tack 
with the vigor of their morning onset, they might have 
changed the fortunes of the day, and perhaps of the 
nation. 

" It is always a great advantage," said Grant, after night- 
fall, " to be the attacking party. We must fire the first gun 
to-morrow morning. ' ' 

Though still in excessive pain, and unable to mount alone, 
he rode to every division commander, and urged the ut- 
most promptness. Before midnight he was back at the old 
cabin which had been turned into a hospital. With Raw- 
lins and Rowley he stretched himself upon the hay behind 
it, and the three were soon asleep with their heads resting 
on logs. 

After a great battle comes a great rain ; and during the 
night welcome torrents began to pour. They quenched 
the fires raging in the woods, which had already burned 
many wounded men to death. Both armies lay on their 
arms, near enough to each other to hear ordinary conver- 
sation, during lulls of the cannonade. But the thunder of 
the gun-boats and groans of the wounded forbade much 
sleeping. 



1362.] Second Day— " The Last of Them." 233 

Before daylight on Monday, the lame General, who had 
been lifted into his saddle, directed his staff:— 

' ' Ride along the line, and see that every division moves 
rip to attack and press the enemy hard, the minute it is 
light enough.-' 

At dawn, the guns began to crack. Our men were in 
excellent spirits, for the arrival of Wallace and Buell had 
almost doubled their numbers. Of the enemy's side, Brax- 
ton Bragg' s official report says : — 

" Our troops, exhausted by days of excessive fatigue and want of rest, 
with ranks thinned by killed, wounded, and stragglers, amounting in the 
whole to nearly half our force, fought bravely, but with the want of that 
animation and spirit which characterized them on the preceding day." 

This is, doubtless, an over-statement. The rebels still 
confronted us with more than half their original force. 
During the night they had fallen back a little, but now they 
disputed the ground, inch by inch, with dogged obstinacy. 

•Still, our soldiers pressed steadily forward. Grant was 
first with Lew. Wallace, on the extreme right, directing a 
column which took the confederates on the hank and cut 
them down as with a scythe. Then he rode over to the left, 
where Buell was handling his men with great effect. For 
several minutes the two generals conferred, sitting upon 
their horses, a few feet from the front line, as much exposed 
as the privates who were falling all around them. 

At one, p. M., the rebels made a desperate stand, near 
Shiloh Chapel, which soon drew Grant to that point. 
Encountering two regiments, on their way to re-enforce a 
wavering brigade, but themselves hesitating before the hot 
fire, he shouted to the men, "Come on," placed himself at 
their head, and led them up to the battle line, where they 
charged vigorously, while he fell back. 

In front of the church were several Parrott guns. To 
the sergeant in charge of them Sherman shouted : — 

"Drop your shots right over there." 

His shells began to fall among the gray mass of rebels 
on the opposite crest, and they disappeared in confusion. 

" That's the last of them," said Grant. "They will not 
make another stand." 



254 Beauregard's Bitter Disappointment. [ isg2. 

Then lie rode over to the left and shook hands with 
Thomas, who commanded one of Buell's divisions, and 
whom he had not met since the beginning of the war. 

Grant. — " General, those fellows are completely demor- 
alized. Take your division and another, and pursue. We 
can cut them all to pieces and capture a great many." 

Thomas. — "My men are completely used up. They 
marched all Saturday and Sunday, and have been fighting 
all day. If you say so, of course, they shall march, but 
they are hardly able to move." 

Crittenden and McCook made similar representations. 
Night approached and it was raining hard and growing cold. 
Grant' s own men were much more worn than Buell' s, so he 
reluctantly gave up his hope of pursuing before morning, and 
rode back to the Tigress. There he found an order from Hal- 
leck, dated on the fifth, instructing him to remain where he 
was, and not fight under any circumstances, unless attacked. 

The General, giving himself no rest, through the two days 
of battle had suffered intensely from his sprained ankle. 
Now, the excitement being over, he was greatly wearied 
and depressed, and felt that this order was peculiarly cruel. 
After dark, during a terrific thunder-storm, Sherman was 
in his tent, lying upon the ground, with his candle stuck in 
the mud and his head on a saddle, reading a Corinth paper, 
and documents left behind by Breckinridge during his oc- 
cupancy twenty-four hours before. One of Grant's aides 
called to tell him that the adjoining division-commander re- 
ported the rebels strong and threatening upon his front. 
He replied : — 

"Tat, tut; they won't trouble us if we don't trouble 
them ; they have had fighting enough for the last two days." 

Sore and bitter must have been the disappointment of 
Beauregard as he turned his shattered army back toward 
Corinth. But, true to his Gascon blood, he telegraphed to 
Richmond : — 

"We have gained a great and glorious victory, eight to ten thousand 
prisouers, and thirty-six pieces of cannon. Buell re-enforced Grant, atid we 
retired to our intrenchraents at Corinth, which we can hold. Loss heavy 
on both sides." 



[18G2. The Summing up of Sjiiloil 255 

The same day, in a letter to Grant asking permission to 
send a flag-of-truce party on the Held to bury liis dead, he 
prefaced his request : — 

"At the close of the conflict yesterday, my forces being exhausted by 
the extraordinary length of the time daring which they were engaged with 
yours on that and the preceding day, and it being apparent that you had re- 
ceived, and were still receiving, re-enforcements, I felt it my duty to icith- 
draio my troops from the immediate scene of the conflict." 

Grant laughed heartily at such a communication from a 
foe, and was half inclined to reply that no apologies were 
necessary. But he responded that the dead were already 
buried ; otherwise he should have been glad to extend "this 
or any courtesy consistent with duty and dictated by hu- 
manity." 

During the battle C. F. Smith was lying prostrate at Sa- 
vanna. A few days later he died, and his remains were 
taken to Philadelphia, where they were followed to the 
grave by thousands of admirers and friends. 

Grant's and Beauregard's official reports exhibited their 
losses as follows : — 

Killed. 

Grant 1700 

Beauregard 1728 

Military critics will always differ about the battle of 
Shiloh, but the general verdict of history will probably be 
— (1.) that the ground was admirably defensible ; (2.) that 
within twenty-five miles of a concentrating enemy our troops 
ought to have been intrenched ; (3.) that Grant conducted the 
battle with skill, and inspired the whole army with his in- 
domitable faith in success, and (4.) that his army, despite 
the stragglers, did the most creditable fighting of any Union 
troops during the war. 

For two days, without intrenchments on either side, two 
armies faced each other in stubborn stand-up fighting, 
the only instance during our conflict. "It was the first 
hurling together of the two peoples upon a large scale in a 
hand to-hand fight, and when the enemy retreated from that 



Wounded. 


Missing. 


Total 


7495 . 


. 3022 . 


. 12217 


8012 . 


957 . 


. 10699 



256 Hue and Cry Against Grant. t 1862 - 

broken and gory field, lie retreated with his arrogance 
tamed, and his dream of invincibility dispelled forever." * 

In preparation for it the enemy had stripped the entire 
Southwest. Its momentous consequences were soon ap- 
parent. It threw New Orleans into our hands ; it opened 
the Mississippi to Memphis ; it was such a deadly blow that 
never again in the West did the rebels take the offensive 
with their old vigor. 

At first, news of the victory caused great rejoicing in 
the North ; the President appointed a day of thanks- 
giving, and new luster was added to the fame Grant had 
earned at Donelson. But a storm of injurious reports fol- 
lowed, caused by the jealousy of officers sore at being over- 
topped by him ; the old hatred of the contractors, and the 
rivalry of Buell's troops, who, seeing all the array of strag- 
glers, and thinking that they had saved the day, were 
a£™:rieved that Grant did not give them the chief credit 
in his dispatches. 

These slanders, repeated by the press and in both branches 
of Congress, asserted that Grant was drunk, and did not 
reach the field until the battle was nearly over ; that Pren- 
tiss was captured in his shirt early in the morning; that thous- 
ands of our men were bayoneted in their tents, and that if 
Euell had not arrived Grant's whole army must have sur- 
rendered. With no less injustice, also, it was related that 
Buell had remained behind purposely that a rival general 
might be ruined. 

Grant took no public notice of the hue and cry against 
him, but in a letter to his father he explained how grossly 
the facts were misrepresented, and added : — 

"I will go on and do my duty to the very best of my ability, and do all 
I can to bring this war to a speedy close. I am not an aspirant for any 
thing at the close of the war. * * * One thing I am well assured of— I have 
the confidence of every man in my command." 

The letter was published, and also some from one of 
the staff. As soon as Grant saw them in the papers he 
telegraphed instructions that no more be allowed to go into 
print. 

* Henry C. Deming. 



1862.] Halleck Removes Him From Command. 257 



CHAPTER XXI. 

SHACKLED. 

Halleck soon came to the field and took command in 
person. Grant seemed quite as much in disfavor with Mm 
as in Congress and the newspapers, and it was currently re- 
ported that the department commander had placed him un- 
der arrest. This was untrue ; but he did shelve him by a 
bit of pettifogging worthy of a little soul. After profound 
study Halleck issued an order * placing Thomas in com- 
mand of the right wing of the army, keeping Buell in 
command of the center, and Pope of the left, and putting 
the reserves under McClernand. It concluded : — 

"Major-General Grant -will retain the general command of the District 
of "West Tennessee, including the Army Corps of the Tennessee, and reports 
will be made to him as heretofore, but in the present movement he will act 
as second in command under the major-general commanding the depart- 
ment. 1 ' 

Halleck assumed to Grant > that this was a promotion, 
— that it was necessary to have a second in command, 
who, if the general- in-chief should be killed or disabled, 
would be ready to succeed him. Halleck took such excel- 
lent care of his precious person that there seemed little 
danger of such a contingency. Grant, himself frank, was 
slow to suspect duplicity, but he was sore and disappointed, 
though the smooth-tongued lawyer sometimes talked him 
into a good humor. 

For four or five weeks after Shiloh, my friend Thomas 
W. Knox and myself, messed at Grant' s head-quarters with 
the chief of staff". Our tent was always near the General's. 
Each evening he reclined on the logs, or stood before the 



'O") 



* April thirtieth. 
R 



258 The Journalists in the Field. [i862. 

camp fire, smoking and talking of the Mexican war, or of 
Shiloh ; or sat for hours in the tent beside us, while we 
played whist or "twenty-one," offering an occasional sug- 
gestion about the game, but never touching a card or a glass 
of liquor. 

These were dark days. Halleck issued orders to sub- 
ordinates directly over Grant' s head. Chicago and Cincin- 
nati papers assailed him bitterly. I never but once knew 
him to allude to these unjust attacks. Then he said to a 
friend of his, a journalist : — 

4 ' After we have all done our best, to have such a torrent 
of obloquy and falsehood poured among my own troops is 
too much. I am not going to lay off my shoulder-straps 
until the close of the war, but I should like to go to New 
Mexico, or some other remote place, and have a small com- 
mand out of the reach of the newspapers." 

There were now twenty or thirty correspondents in the 
field. They hunted in couples. When in riding about the 
camps — their custom always of an afternoon — one pair met 
another, the four would dismount, tie their horses, and sit 
upon logs or lie under the trees and discuss the situation. 
The group would soon be swelled by other passing journal- 
ists and officers. Whatever the conversation began about, 
it soon drifted to Grant, concerning whose recent battle, 
though enjoying every facility for learning the facts, they 
were about equally divided. ' 

Halleck gathered a hundred and twenty thousand men, 
the largest army ever seen in the West, and three times 
greater than Beauregard's on his front. As has been aptly 
said, ' ' Napoleon might as well have intrenched on the field 
of Austerlitz, or Wellington on the eve of Waterloo." But 
the battle of Shiloh had developed the natural caution of a 
military theorist into incredible timidity, and our army with 
a front ten miles long, crept toward Corinth at a snail' s pace. 

Grant had not lost his keen sense of the ludicrous. Raw- 
lins was proud of a splendid bay horse, presented to him by 
Galena friends, and took special pleasure in contemplating 
its long showy tail. But one morning he found this reduced 
to the semblance of an old blacking-brush. Not a single 



1862.] A Couple of Horse Stories. 259 

hair was left more than two inches long. He conld hardly 
recognize the noble charger thus shorn of his glory. Swear- 
ing that some enemy had done this, he started for a pistol, 
vowing to shoot the offender, whom he supposed to be 
some orderly angered at a hasty rebuke. Grant, stand- 
ing in his favorite position outside his tent, with hands in 
pockets and smoking his after-breakfast cigar, happened to 
be looking on. Learned in the ways of horses and their 
kind, he comprehended that not the shears of an angry sol- 
dier, but the teeth of some vagrant mule, had taken this 
liberty with the flowing appendage. Rawlins' consternation 
and indignation were irresistibly droll, and the chief roared 
with laughter. This was too much, and the adjutant remem- 
bering Grant 1 s favorite cream-colored steed, retorted : — 

" Well, General, I hope that some night a mule will eat 
off the tail of your old yellow horse — and then see how 
you'll like it." 

For months afterward, whenever the aide rode in ad- 
vance, the ill-treated tail provoked the General to new 
cachinations. But he came near being served with poetic 
justice. Meeting, one day, his old Twenty-first regiment, 
the men greeted him with cheer after cheer, and, flocking 
about him, each cut, not "a hair," but a lock " for memory" 
from his horse's tail and mane. Rawlins' wicked wish 
would soon have been gratified, had not Grant made haste 
to escape from the sentimental soldiers. 

"Love me, love my horse," was his maxim. Jocose 
friends used to say, that to disparage his charger or to ride a 
better one was a sure way to lose favor. A boy, who had 
been a great favorite, once struck the cream-colored steed, 
and its master never forgave him. 

The pleasant spring days among snowy tents in those 
deep old woods — how long ago they seem ! How defiant 
were the rebels, and how dark the prospect of subduing 
them ! But one ray of light came. Knox and myself were 
riding through the forest when a friend met us and shouted : 

"Hurrah! Butler has taken New Orleans! Oh, you 
needn't look incredulous ; there's no doubt about it. I 
have just read it in a rebel newspaper." 



260 Halleck's Snail-like Movement. [i862. 

New Orleans, the great city of the Confederacy, gave 
ns the mouth of the Mississippi, and it appeared compara- 
tively easy to get the rest. 

"After the war is over," said Grant, in one of his late 
evening talks — "and I wish it might be over soon — I want 
to go hack to Galena and live. I am saving money from 
my pay now, and shall he able to educate my children." 

But he did not believe the conflict was to be short. The 
rebels seemed little disheartened notwithstanding enormous 
losses of territory and life. Hitherto he had fancied that a 
few great battles would end the war, but now he was 
satisfied that no maneuvering, no capturing of their cities — 
nothing but the absolute destruction of their armies, would 
finish the contest. Therefore he believed that wise policy 
required us to push forward and strike heavy blows 
wherever an enemy could be found. 

But Halleck, apostle of the spade, made his great army 
an army of ditchers. He beheld Beauregard as a lion in his 
path. That wary general, knowing thoroughly the man he 
dealt with, made a great flourish of trumpets, and issued an 
order* to his soldiers, which began : — 

" We are about to meet once more, in the shock of battle, the invaders 
of our soil, the despoilers of our homes, the disturbers of our family ties, 
faceto face, hand to hand." 

Its only purpose seems to have been to frighten Halleck, 
and it accomplished that. So creeping up through pleasant 
woods, and apple and cherry orchards fragrant with blos- 
soms, our men dug like beavers, and had daily skirmishes, 
which cost fifty or a hundred lives. All idle armies suffer 
from sickness. The spade is more destructive than the mus- 
ket, for turning up the soil loads the air with miasma. Thou- 
sands upon thousands died from dysentery and fevers. 

Halleck believed that our left was the place for attack- 
ing, if we attacked at ail. Grant, familiar with the ground, 
was confident that an advance on our right would easily 
drive the enemy back. Sherman and McPherson agreed 
with him. Returning once from head-quarters, in evident 

* May eighth. 



1862.] Divulging Military Information. 261 

agitation, lie answered an inquiring look from his chief-of- 
staff, while his lip quivered with emotion : — 

" You know what we have always talked about — that 
the way to attack Corinth is on the right ?" 

"Yes, by this -road." 

"Well, I suggested it to Halleck, and he treated it with 
contempt. He pooh-poohed it, and left me to understand 
that he wanted no suggestions from me." 

One day, in an unusually gracious mood, Halleck con- 
ferred with Grant about a proposed movement. Shortly 
after, a letter in the Chicago Times related the subject of 
their conversation with considerable accuracy, and the chief 
complained that some of the subordinate' s aides must be 
disclosing military secrets. Grant immediately summoned 
the staff to his tent, and asked : — 

" Now, gentlemen, has any one of you given this infor- 
mation V 

All indignantly replied that they had not. While 
they were talking, Grant noticed that the date of the paper 
rendered it impossible for an account of the conversation 
with Halleck to have reached Chicago before it was issued. 
So he called Halleck' s attention to this fact, and the chief, 
who was nothing if he was not mathematical, promptly ad- 
mitted his mistake. Probably one of his own aides or some 
general officer, had incidentally mentioned that such a 
movement was in contemplation, and the imaginative jour- 
nalist, drawing his bow at a venture, had happened to hit the 
exact truth about the conference. 

Though deeply depressed, Grant held his peace. At 
his head-quarters not a syllable was heard in crimination of 
other generals, or of the chief. Doubtless his reticence and 
patience at this most trying moment saved him from ruin. 
The pressure against him was already so strong that a little 
additional hostility might have turned the scale. 

On the eleventh of May, he wrote a letter to his chief so 
personal in its character, that he sent it direct to Halleck, 
and not through the adjutant-general. It stated, that ever 
since the publication of the order relieving him from com- 
mand of the Army of the Tennessee, he had been deter- 



262 Grant Demands a Defined Position. [i862. 

mined to have liis anomalous position corrected the moment 
they should be no longer "in the face of the enemy." But 
as it was now understood through the army, that his position 
was "but little different from being under arrest," he sug- 
gested that enemies must be working ^against him with 
Halleck, or that Halleck "must be acting under higher 
authority," and respectfully asked to be altogether relieved 
from duty in the department, or to have his position defined. 

Halleck replied the next day, in a soothing note, alleg- 
ing that he had placed Grant in the highest position next 
his own, as Beauregard had been second under Albert Sid- 
ney Johnston ; and had sent orders direct to corps com- 
manders, — as was his right, — out of no disrespect to him, 
but to facilitate business. 

Soon after, moved to anger at some comments upon his 
military conduct, Halleck expelled the correspondents from 
his army. He lacked the sense to see how much the press — 
always far more important in our own country than in any 
other — had grown since the beginning of the conliict, and 
how universally the people at home regarded it as their 
most trustworthy source of information about their soldier 
sons and brothers. The iive hundred correspondents with, 
our various national armies came from every calling. Many 
were unfit for their work, and all had to be educated to it. 
Gradually the unworthy were weeded out, and the others 
learned something of the precision, candor, and moderation 
needed. The thirty in Halleck' s command, with proper 
pride in their own profession, and believing that they were 
there as legitimately as the general himself, declined to hide 
in his camps like criminals and fugitives, but withdrew in a 
body, and waited for events. 

Halleck having accomplished just fifteen miles in six 
weeks was now approaching Corinth. Very many of his 
officers believed that the rebels had evacuated it. Pope, 
endeavored repeatedly to bring on a general engagement, 
but was kept too tightly curbed. No man was more dis- 
satisfied than Grant. He said : — 

" If I were in command, I would push in and win or 
lose. I may be rash, but I would not wait here always." 



1862.] "You Fought the Battle of Corinth." 263 

On the twenty-ninth of May, a tremendous explosion 
was heard from the town. The rebels were blowing up their 
works. Halleck, either to hide his blunder, or through 
sheer stupidity, issued an order alleging that there was 
every indication that the enemy would attack in force the 
next morning. The army was drawn up in line of battle to 
receive an assault. At that very moment the rebel rear- 
guard was marching out, after an evacuation so clean that 
hardly a canteen or a knapsack was left behind ! Beaure- 
gard' s preparations had been going on for weeks, during 
which he had befooled Halleck. 

Early on the morning of the thirtieth, Logan was ordered 
to advance and intrench, though he reported that no rebels 
confronted his division. So his Illinois soldiers being a little 
off the main road, and no notice being sent them, spaded 
for hours after the rest of our army had entered Corinth. 
When Logan learned how he had been served he grew 
furious. That night a number of young officers grew hilari- 
ous over the discomfiture of Halleck ; and Logan was with 
difficulty restrained from telling that stolid chief, that his 
division should never dig another ditch, unless it were one 
to bury 1dm in ! 

Halleck, at last forced into giving his ill-used subordi- 
nate some credit, said to Grant : — 

" After all, you fought the battle of Corinth at Pittsburg 
Landing. ' ' 

The journalists were revenged. Word was sent to Cairo 
that they might come to the front. Some, not waiting for 
permission, had gone into the deserted town with the 
advance, and they reported its condition, without covering 
up tenderly the great blunder. 

Halleck sent Buell and Pope in feeble pursuit, still leav- 
ing Grant in camp. ^In a cavalry raid to the enemy's rear, 
an unknown young qfaartermaster from the regular army, 
appointed colonel of the Second Michigan Cavalry only five 
days before, made a magnificent dash upon five thousand 
rebel horse, whom he followed twenty miles with only two 
thousand of his own troopers, capturing many prisoners. 
The exploit brought him to Grant's notice, and made him a 



264 The Guerrillas After Grant. [1862. 

brigadier-general of volunteers. His name w as PJhil. Sh er- 
i idim. 

The evacuation of Corinth uncovered Memphis, and, six 
days later, it was captured by our gun-boats after the most 
stirring river battle of the war, fought just after sunrise in 
front of the city, and witnessed by ten thousand spectators 
from the shore. On the rebel side, every boat, save one, 
was sunk, blown up, or captured, and many lives were lost, 
but on our fleet only one man was injured. 

So Grant' s victory at Shiloh had thrown the second city 
of the South into our hands, and, thanks to him, the Union 
was still "going along." 

A letter from Corinth, written by one of the staff to a 
comrade at home, depicts the general feeling of the army : — 

" Immediately after the evacuation of Corinth, General Grant made ap- 
plication for leave of absence for twenty days, for himself and staff. It was 
granted, hut he was requested to wait a few days to see what would turn 
up. We were all packed, and waiting to be off every day for a week, when 
the General was informed that he could not be spared. 

" Since you left, the great battle of Corinth lias been fought. How terri- 
bly 'Old Brains' was sold, you can not tell until you return. * * * 
When we entered in the morning, Corinth was completely deserted. The 
last soldier was gone. Twenty houses were on fire, and the long platform 
of the railway was burning. Beans and rice were in the street and beef 
barrels cut open and exposed to the sun and flies. 

" The buildings on fire were consumed, but the flames spread no farther. 
The railway track was not destroyed, and McPherson, with a party of men, 
went hunting and repairing locomotives. Six or seven are now running, 
and trains pass our camp, going down the Memphis branch forty-five miles. 
We are domiciled in this pleasant town, which has houses enough for 
eighteen hundred inhabitants. The weather is delightful, the nights being 
so cool that we sleep under blankets." 

Buell was sent to Chattanooga. Halleck remained in 
command of the department, and Grant was placed in charge 
of the District of West Tennessee. On the morning of 
the twenty-third of June, after spending two days with 
Sherman, he left Moscow, on horseback, for Memphis, thirty- 
nine miles distant, accompanied by only three officers and 
ten cavalry-men. The country swarmed with guerrillas. 
One rebel party of fifteen, learning who the travelers were, 



1862.J The Fourth of July Dinner in Memphis. 265 

rode hard, and five miles from the city came in by a side 
road, expecting to intercept them. Fortunately, the General 
had r>assed a few minutes before. They pursued no farther, 
as there was nothing to gain by attacking in the rear ; and 
Grant's habitual exposure of himself received no punish- 
ment. 

Reaching Memphis, he superseded Lew. Wallace, who 
was commanding the town. Wallace had placed Knox and 
myself in charge of the Argus, a most offensive rebel paper. 
We had been running it for two weeks, making sure that 
its patrons should read sound Union doctrine for once. 
The former editors waited upon Grant, and begged that they 
might be allowed to resume control. He promptly acqui- 
esced. They asked : — 

" Will any censorship be established over us?" 

"Oh, no; manage your paper as you please; but the 
very first morning that any thing disloyal appears I shall 
stop it and place you under arrest." 

They were careful for the future. Another fire-eating 
journal, the Avalanclie, was apparently seeking to pro- 
voke a riot, and Grant suppressed it, but finally permitted 
it to resume, on the withdrawal of the obnoxious editor. It 
immediately changed its tune to a zealous advocacy of the 
Union cause. 

The Fourth of July was celebrated with due pomp and 
circumstance, Brigadier-General John M. Thayer* giving a 
bountiful entertainment in the garden of his head-quarters, a 
deserted rebel residence. Charles A. Dana spoke fervently 
in praise of "Honest Abjadiam Lincoln." Thayer compli- 
mented Grant as the he^o of Donelson, who had broken the 
back of the rebellion, and the band struck up, " See, the 
Conquering Hero Comes." The General only bowed his 
acknowledgments, and remarked that in speech-making his 
early education had been neglected. To the toast "The 
Press," I responded in earnest praise of Grant, more 
deserved than appropriate to my theme, as many news- 
papers still persisted in abusing him. So we made the most 

* Now United States Senator from Nebraska. 



266 Halleck Leaves Grant in Command. [i862. 

of the occasion, and crowned our hero with his well-earned 
laurels. 

On the eleventh of June, Grant returned to Corinth, where 
his chief, with unusual kindness, said to him : — 

"I suppose I shall have to give the job of capturing 
Vicksburg to you." 

A few days later, Halleck, ordered East, offered the com- 
mand of his troops to a quartermaster, Colonel Robert 
Allen, who declined it. Then he telegraphed to the Secre- 
tary of War: — " Will you designate a commander to this 
army, or shall I turn it over to the next in rank V 

Ordered in reply, to turn it over to the next in rank, 
he left Grant in charge, and started for Washington, where 
he was made general-in-chief of all the land forces of the 
United States. 

Grant still fancying that his captious superior might 
assign some one to duty over him, said : — 

ff " There are two men in this army whom I would just as 
soon serve under as to have them serve under me. One is 
Sherman, the other is 'Rosy.' " 
He always spoke of Rosecrans by this familiar name, 
and continued to esteem him highly for months afterward. 
Rosecrans, he said admiringly, could sit down and write a 
lecture, or even a book, upon any desired topic. 

The practical world shouts always for the man of deeds ; 
yet how often does the actor slow of speech envy the fluent 
writer or orator ! Wolfe, reconnoitering in a skiff, with 
muffled oars, the night before he won immortality on the 
Heights of Abraham, recited a stanza from Gray's Elegy, 
to his companions, and added : " I would rather have writ- 
ten that poem than beat the French to-morrow." But 
grudging Nature, who denies brilliant plumage to her 
sweetest song-birds, decrees that the great of deed shall not 
be great in word. Whom did she ever endow as soldier, 
orator, and writer, all in one and foremost in all, save Julius 
Caesar, her petted darling % And then to what end, beyond 



1 a name at which the world grew pale, 

To point a moral or adorn a tale?" 



1862] An Order About Contrabands. 267 



CHAPTER XXII. 

1UKA AND CORINTH. 

Corinth was the strategic point in Grant' s department. 
The Tennessee River being too low for steamers in summer, 
he drew his supplies from Columbus, Kentucky, which 
compelled him to keep open one hundred and fifty miles of 
railway through a guerrilla-infested region. 

Garrisoning Corinth, Bolivar, and Jackson, all impor- 
tant points, his force was too small to defend easily his 
great department, much less to take the offensive. Bragg, 
with a large army, was now moving toward Kentucky, so 
every man that could be spared was taken from Grant, 
while Van Dorn and Price constantly threatened him. He 
was sadly hampered and harassed, but watched the enemy 
vigilantly, and remodeled and strengthened the Corinth for- 
tifications — a fact soon to prove of vital importance. 

Slaves still flocked to our camps. Congress had prohib- 
ited officers or soldiers from returning them to their masters, 
under pain of dismissal from the service. Per contra, Hal- 
leck' s Order Number Three was still in force. Of course, 
it was impossible to harmonize instructions which conflicted 
so positively ; but Grant, with characteristic subordination, 
attempted it, and issued the following : — * 

" Recent acts of Congress prohibit the army from returning fugitives 
from labor to their claimants, and authorize the employment of such persons 
in the service of the Government. The following orders are therefore pub- 
lished for the guidance of the army in this military district in this matter : — 

"I. — All fugitives thus employed must be registered, the names of the 
fugitive and claimants given, and must be borne upon the morning reports of 
the command in which they are kept, showing how they are employed. 

"II. — Fugitive slaves may be employed as laborers in the quartermaster's, 
subsistence, and engineer departments, and whenever by such employment 
a soldier may be saved to the ranks. They may be employed as teamsters, 

* August eleventh. 



268 The Battle of Iuka. [^02 

as company cooks (not exceeding four to a company), or as hospital attend- 
ants and nurses. Officers may employ them as private servants, in which 
latter case the fugitive will not be paid or rationed by the Government. 
Negroes not thus employed will be deemed "unauthorized persons," and 
must be excluded from the camps. 

" III. Officers and soldiers are positively prohibited from enticing slaves to 
leave their masters. When it becomes necessary to employ this kind of 
labor, commanding officers of posts or troops must send details (always 
under the charge of a suitable commissioned officer), to press into service 
the slaves of disloyal persons to the number required." 

Headquarters were at Corinth, the depot of national 
supplies and munitions. One day Grant and staff, riding- 
down to drink from a sulphur spring a mile south, heard a 
musket shot from a log house near by. A mother and her 
daughter came rushing out, pursued by a Union soldier who 
had fired his gun to terrify them, and then attempted 
violence. Quick as thought the General sprang from his 
horse, wrenched away the musket, and with the butt of it 
felled the brute to the earth, where he lay with no sign of 
life except a little quivering of the foot. 

Rawlins. — " I guess you have killed him General." 

Grant. — " If I have, it has only served him right." 

But the miscreant recovered and was taken back to his 
quarters. 

September opened gloomily. In Yirginia, Pope had 
been badly defeated. In Kentucky, Bragg had penetrated 
northward till he boldly threatened the free State of Ohio. 

Sterling Price, seized Iuka. [Map, page 198.] Grant 
determining to destroy him before Van Dorn — approaching 
from the southwest with another force — could join him, sent 
Rosecrans and Ord, to attack Price. 

On the nineteenth of September, Rosecrans encountered 
him two miles south of Iuka. Fighting continued from 
four o 1 clock until ten, Rosecrans losing seven hundred in 
killed and wounded. The next morning, Ord, approaching 
from the north, pushed into Iuka, but the rebels had fled. 

The indecisive battle only crippled the enemy. Price 
joined Van Dorn, which rendered Grant's position very pre- 
carious. On the twenty -third, leaving Rosecrans in com- 
mand at Corinth, and Ord at Bolivar, he removed his own 



1362.] The Battle of Corinth. 269 

head-quarters to Jackson, Tennessee, a better point for over- 
looking liis whole department. 

It was difficult to surmise where the enemy would strike, 
and he was harassed and absorbed. Several Galena gen- 
tlemen now spent a few days with him. One morning 
Washburne, rising very early, found Grant at his desk : — 

' ' You are up early, General V ' 

" Yes ; I got up at two o'clock, and have been working 
ever since, trying to study out the plans of old Pap 
Price." * 

Price retreating southward, formed a junction with Yan 
Dorn. Indications soon pointed to Corinth as the place 
aimed at by their united armies, and Grant ordered Rose- 
crans to call in his outlying forces, and sent Ord and 
Hurlbut to strike the rebels in flank or rear. 

Rosecrans had nineteen thousand men. On the third of 
October, Yan Dorn, commanding his own and Price's troops, 
jreported at eighteen thousand in all, approached Corinth 
from the north. Five miles out he met Rosecrans. A 
fierce battle followed, and before night Rosecrans was 
driven back into his fortifications. 

The elated rebels slept on their arms, within a hundred 
yards of our works, and early next morning made a des- 
perate assault. But they were doing exactly "what we had 
done so often — rushing upon strong, well-defended works. 
They fought with extreme gallantry, closing up the great 
igaps which our artillery cut in their ranks, averting their 
faces at the pelting bullets, and charging magnificently 
across very difficult ground. They even obtained posses- 
sion of one of our forts, for a moment, but Rosecrans rallied 
his men in person and drove them back. 

From dawn until noon their assaults continued. Some 
even got into the town, but were soon captured or driven 
out. Finally, at noon the wearied and shattered enemy 
paused, and Rosecrans gave the order to charge. His 
troops sallied out and chased the swarming fugitives into 
the woods, capturing many prisoners and arms. 

* A name originally given by Price's soldiers on account of his gravity and 
paternal kindness. 



270 The Historic Wisconsin Eagle. P862. 

Early tlie next morning, ten miles south of Corinth, in 
pursuance of Grant's far-seeing plan, Hurlbut and Ord 
struck the retreating rebels on the flank as they were cross- 
ing a river, and captured a battery and hundreds of prison- 
ers. Ord was badly wounded, otherwise the enemy would 
have been utterly destroyed. 

The Union loss in this battle and pursuit, was three hun- 
dred killed, eighteen hundred wounded, and two hundred 
missing. The rebels lost two thousand two hundred prison- 
ers, and far more killed and wounded than we, as they were 
fairly mown down while charging impregnable positions. 
President Lincoln telegraphed, congratulating Grant, and 
asking : — 

" How does it all sum up ?" 

The way it summed up was, that West Tennessee was 
relieved from immediate danger, and the country reassured. 

That the enemy attacked upon the north side was prob- 
ably the result of a letter from a feminine spy in Corinth, 
who wrote to Van Dorn that our fortifications on that side 
were weak and poorly manned. Ord intercepted and read 
the missive, and then sent it forward to the unsuspecting 
rebel general, but promptly strengthened the north works 
for it. 

During the battle an enormous black eagle, * borne upon 
a standard by the Eighth Wisconsin Volunteers, excited 
admiration and delight. He had been caught in Northern 
Wisconsin, by an Indian, and presented to the regiment. 
Through every subsequent battle of the war the men bon 

* li Red as blood o'er the town 
The angry sun went down, 

Firing flag-staff and vane. 
And our eagle — as for him 
There all ruffled and grim 
He sat o'er-looking the slain. 

" No mother to mourn or search, 

No priest to bless or pray, 

We buried them where they lay 

Without the rite of the church. 

But our eagle all that day 

Stood solemn and stdl on his perch." 

R H. Brownell. 



1862.] Grant Occupies La Grange. 271 

him beside their colors. They said that whenever the hand 
began to play or the guns to pound, he would screech with 
delight. Despite his martial tastes, he had the good fortune 
never to be wounded. In quiet times he would frolic in the 
water, run races with little darkies, lounge about the sutler's 
tent, and pick up chickens from rebel barn-yards. 

At this period, Grant frequently remarked that he dis- 
liked to hold slaves, but would not sell a negro. Mrs. Grant 
visited him at Jackson, and during her stay, ' ' Black Julia" 
removed his perplexity by running away. The General was 
delighted, and forbade any attempt to bring her back, ex- 
pressing the wish that he could get rid of his two other 
"chattels" in the same way. 

Nothing pleased him more than to have some one play 
upon the piano at head-quarters, while the staff and visitors 
sang " The Star Spangled Banner," or "Rally Round the 
Flag, Boys." Sometimes he ventured to join in, but always 
sotto voce. He certainly could .never have imposed himself 
upon the enemy as a minstrel, like "good King Alfred." 

While Ilalleck, with characteristic timidity, was counsel- 
ing Grant to prepare for an attack, his army, thirty thou- 
sand strong, the right wing commanded by McPherson and 
the left by C. S. Hamilton, started southward from Jack- 
son, Tennessee, and took possession of La Grange. * 

The General, riding his favorite cream-colored "Jack," 
and delighted to be again moving on the enemy's works, 
relieved the tedium of the road with reminiscences of the 
Mexican war and garrison life in peace times. 

The country was parched for want of autumn rains, and 
from little army fires the flames, catching at the dried 
grass, spread for miles over fences, forests, and sometimes 
houses. Caissons and ammunition wagons were compelled 
to go ten miles out of the direct road to avoid the conflagra- 
tion. Grant was sorely annoyed. Fires were strictly for- 
bidden, and disobedience punished by arrest when the 
offenders could be caught, but the flames marched with the 
troops, for the thoughtless soldier cared more for his pot of 
coffee than for the property of the enemy. 

* November fourth. 



272 Depredations by the Soldiers. [i862. 

In portions of the command, not under the General' s eye, 
there was worse than thoughtlessness. At Jackson, the 
Twenty-fourth Illinois had robbed a store, destroying and 
carrying off much property. The guilty individuals were 
undiscovered ; so Grant assessed the loss — twelve hundred 
and forty-two dollars — upon the whole regiment, and sum- 
marily dismissed two captains from the service for willful 
neglect of duty. On another line, lawless soldiers burnt a 
church and dwellings, and even sacked the cabin of a poor 
woman, and brought away upon the points of their bayonets 
the clothing prepared for her unborn child. Details of 
these outrages were given in the correspondence of a Chicago 
newspaper. Grant, soon after, met its writer at head-quar- 
ters, and inviting him into his room, said, while hunting 
about the mantel-piece for a match to light his cigar : — 

"Did you write this letter to the Times V 

"Yes." 

"Well — sit down. I simp]y want to say that if you 
always stick as close to the truth as you have here, we shall 
never quarrel. The troops did behave shamefully. I have 
issued the most stringent orders, but subordinate com- 
manders will not enforce them. If I could ' identify any 
man committing one of these outrages, my impulse would 
be to shoot him. I don't suppose I should, but I would 
punish him severely. I am as bitterly opposed to depreda- 
tions as you, or any one else, can be." 

Before the battle of Corinth, McPherson, very anxious 
to participate, had been sent to Rosecrans with a hastily- 
formed brigade. Though making a skillful and rapid march, 
he did not reach the field until the enemy was retreating. 
But Grant, knowing that several major-generalships would 
be conferred for that battle, and having the utmost faith in 
his friend's soldierly ability, asked that he might take 
the precedence. The President, on Halleck' s recommenda- 
tion, granted the request ; so McPherson was now a major- 
general, his commission dating earlier than any of the others. 

The generous and lovable young officer, in turn, wrote to 
Halleck, with whom he was a special favorite, urging that 
Grant be appointed a brigadier in the regular army, and 



18G2.J The Humors of Cipher-Telegraphing. 273 

the general-in-chief replied that he would press his claims 
the moment a vacancy occurred. It is pleasant to record 
here that always after going to Washington— as if in atone- 
ment for his former ungraciousness — Halleck gave to Grant 
entire and hearty support, and worked earnestly and unre- 
mittingly for the good of the service. 

Grant felt keenly the newspaper denunciation of which 
he had been the victim, but very seldom alluded to it. 
Once lie said to a Cincinnati correspondent : — 

' ' Your paper has made many false statements about me, 
and I presume will continue to do so. Go on in that way 
if you like, but it is hard treatment for a man trying to do 
his duty in the field. I am willing to be judged by my acts, 
but not to have them misrepresented or falsified." 

At La Grange he remained for a month waiting repairs 
upon the railway on his front. The rebel forces he thought 
as strong as his own, but he telegraphed to Washington that 
he could "handle them without gloves." 

This telegraphing led sometimes to serious results, and 
sometimes to ludicrous blunders. While Halleck com- 
manded at Corinth, the wire to Memphis ran through the 
country of the rebels. They tapped it, and took off impor- 
tant messages about the number and disposition of troops. 
To prevent this, ciphers were resorted to and usually with 
success. One day Grant, explaining the system to an old 
classmate, C. S. Hamilton, whose head- quarters, two miles 
off, were connected with his by a wire, proposed that they 
should have a cipher of their own ; and he prepared one 
at once. 

A day or two later Hamilton telegraphed the result of a 
reconnoissance to liini in the new cipher, and asked for fur- 
ther ord( ts. During the night a long dispatch came in reply, 
which Hamilton got out of bed to read. For two hours 
he puzzled over it in vain, when he became suddenly 
conscious of being nearly frozen, as the weather was 
excessively cold, and he had nothing on but his night-shirt. 
He gave it up, telegraphed back to Grant that the dispatch 
was unintelligible, and asked for his mother-tongue. Grant 
in vain tried to decipher his own message, getting out of 
s 



274 The Country Slow to Appreciate Grant. 1S ^-] 

bed for that purpose, and in turn he also became almost 
frozen over the perplexing conundrum. The next day it 
was discovered that one polysyllabled word of the cipher, 
divided at the end of a line, had been rendered as two 
words, making nonsense of the whole message. 

It was now mid-winter. The summer and fall campaigns 
had been of service to Grant. His men, no longer demoral- 
ized by injurious reports, had full confidence in him. Un- 
der difficult circumstances he had protected his large depart- 
ment, and fought two of the most creditable battles of his life. 

Still, neither the country nor the Government thoroughly 
appreciated him. Our dramatic people were slow to com- 
prehend that a man who was called ''common-place," and 
had no rhetoric to tickle their ears, could be one of the 
world's great generals. They were prone to think rather 
that, though possessing energy and patriotism, he had won 
great successes through great good fortune. 

In a few minor points the career of our unpretend- 
ing General resembled Napoleon' s, who likewise began as 
a second-lieutenant, wore a rough coat and clumsy boots, 
was called ' ' the Spartan ' ' by his classmates, and ' ' Father 
Thoughtful" by his soldiers, accepted every promotion as a 
matter of course, and had absolute confidence in his destiny 
to succeed. Grant had not run away from his first battle, 
like Frederic, nor was he corrupt, like Marlborough, nor 
boastful, like Alexander and Xerxes. He had given us 
almost every great success yet gained in the war. But he 
was unimaginative and unrhetorical, and Americans instinct- 
ively infer that these qualities come from stupidity. Once 
the impatient and vain John Adams pointed at Washing- 
ton' s portrait, exclaiming, " No one will ever know how 
often that old wooden head obtained credit for wisdom by 
simply holding his tongue when he had nothing to say." 

Every school-boy could have named heroes and states- 
men from Cato to Jefferson, who were not glib of tongue. 
But the lessons of history are unheeded until each genera- 
tion learns them yet anew. So there were sharp trials and 
imminent perils yet in store for our General before the na- 
tion should comprehend his virtues or his genius. 



1862.] Grant Sets the Contrabands to Work. 275 

Grant was now fairly in the cotton country. Cotton 
buyers swarmed in his department. He was bitterly op- 
posed to them, as to everybody else trying to make money 
out of the misfortunes of the country. They demoralized 
the army. Cotton was worth a dollar a pound in the 
North, a price which brought large profits — particularly 
when the seller had stolen it to begin with. Specula- 
tors could pay liberally for expeditions into the rebel 
lines to bring out this crop. Some officers — chiefly vol- 
unteers, as regulars had soldierly ideas on this sub- 
ject* — accumulated many thousands of dollars. They de- 
fended themselves, saying: — "Why should not we take 
this profit, who are periling our lives for the country, rather 
than speculators, who are here solely from mercenary con- 
siderations V ' 

Grant disapproved the whole system, and thought that 
all cotton should be confiscated by Government, or else 
that the profit on it should go to the producer, and not to the 
middle-men. He put all possible hinderances in the way 
of speculators, and would have kept them wholly out of the 
army if he could. Every officer whom he suspected of 
dabbling in cotton was looked upon with disapprobation, 
and the surest passport to his esteem was to be proof against 
cotton-buyers and trade-permits from Washington. When 
asked to name honest and discreet Union men, to sell goods 
to the inhabitants in his department for their immediate 
needs and at a fair price, he replied : — 

" I will do no such thing. If I did, it would be charged 
in less than a week that I was a partner of every one of the 
persons trading under my authority." 

When Betsey Trotwood asked what she should do with 
her nephew, David Copperfield, unexpectedly thrown upon 
her hands, the worthy Mr. Dick replied: — "Wash him." 
Grant dealt witli the fugitives who swarmed to his camp in 
an equally practical way. Through the large region which 
his southward march had thrown into the Union lines, the 

* At Nashville, in 1SG4, it was said that one general of the old army, though a 
poor man, refused an offer of a hundred thousand dollars, simply to load with cotton 
one of his empty trains as it returned from taking supplies to the front. 



276 History of the Jew Order. [isg2. 

staple crop of the South was yet standing in the fields. He 
issued an order,* directing that the contrabands be properly 
cared for, organized, and 

" Set to work picking, ginning, .and baling the cotton now ungathered. 
* * * Suitable guards will be detailed to protect them from molestation. For 
farther instructions, the officers in charge of these laborers will call at these 
head-quarters." 

The rebel General Pemberton, commanding the region 
upon his front, was compelled to fall back by a Union 
cavalry raid, which crossed the Mississippi from Helena, 
Arkansas, and cut the railway in his rear. Grant, pursu- 
ing, had sharp skirmishing, in which several hundred pris- 
oners were captured, and his cavalry drove the enemy to 
Grenada. 

As our lines advanced southward the regulation of trade 
grew more perplexing. At Corinth, f Grant had issued an 
order prohibiting the carrying of coin south of Cairo or 
Columbus, except for Government purposes. It was at 
first countermanded by the Treasury Department. A few 
weeks later, however, that repentant authority not only 
confirmed it, but extended it over all the rebel territory 
which had fallen into our hands. To enforce it, and also to 
keep information from the enemy, as military movements 
of the utmost importance were beginning, Grant ordered 
that persons going south from Columbus and Memphis, 
should be satisfactorily vouched for and their persons 
searched. 

At both places, traders were detected trying to get 
through with gold, and also to smuggle quinine, groceries, 
clothing, and boots and shoes. These offenders and most 
of the cotton-buyers were Jews. The department swarmed 
with them. The long dining-hall of the principal hotel at 
Memphis, looked at meal-times like a Feast of the Pass- 
over. 

Head-quarters were at Oxford. Colonel Dubois, com- 
manding at Holly Springs, twenty-five miles north, found 
these people so troublesome that he issued an order expel- 

* November thirteenth. f August sixth. 



1862.J The President Countermands It. 277 

ling "vagrants and Jews" from his district. When Grant 
received it he said : — 

"This is manifestly unjust. We can not exclude any 
whole class, or any religious denomination as such." 

Thereupon he countermanded the order. But a few 
days later* one of his relatives arrived, having first tele- 
graphed him from Holly Springs, and secured passes to the 
front for himself and " a friend." The friend proved to be 
a cotton buyer of Israel. Grant was excessively angered, 
especially as that day's mail brought a batch of letters, 
some anonymous and others signed by the writers, which 
Halleck had referred to him, and which represented that 
Jew speculators had full sway in the department. Grant 
instantly issued this order : — 

"The Jews, as a class, violating every regulation of trade established by 
the Treasury Department, also department orders, are hereby expelled from 
the department within twenty-four hours from the receipt of this order by 
post commanders. They will see that all this class of people are furnished 
with passes and required to leave, and any one returning after such notifica- 
tion will be arrested and held in confinement until an opportunity occurs of 
sending them out as prisoners, unless furnished with permits from these 
head-quarters. No passes will be given these people to visit head-quarters 
for the purpose of making personal application for trade-permits." 

When he handed it to his adjutant-general for promul- 
gation, that subordinate said : — 

" You countermanded such an order two weeks ago." 

"Well," he replied, "they can countermand this 
from Washington if they like, but we will issue it any 
how. ' ' 

The purpose was not to expel Jews residing within our 
lines. Those, engaged in legitimate business were generally 
loyal and patriotic ; many had helped the Union cause with 
their money, and some with their muskets. But the Gen- 
eral determined to cut off the speculators and smugglers by 
a rule so stringent that it could not possibly be evaded, and 
to make exceptions of all individuals who could bring satis- 
factory proof that they were in any honest pursuit, and 
could be relied upon not to give aid and comfort to the 

* December seventeenth. 



278 A Grievance for Peace Democrats. [i862. 

enemy. The order was sent to Columbus and Corinth, but 
to no other posts. 

So many representations of its injustice poured in that 
Grant was about to withdraw it, when the President coun- 
termanded it. 

But it furnished northern peace democrats with a griev- 
ance. In Congress George H. Pendleton, of Ohio, intro- 
duced a resolution pronouncing it "illegal, unjust, and 
deserving the sternest condemnation," and declaring its 
execution "tyrannical and cruel." The House, however, 
made short work of it. Washburne said : — 

"This resolution censures one of our best generals 
without a hearing, and I move that it be laid on the table." 

This was done by a vote of sixty-three to fifty- six. 

In the Senate, Powell, of Kentucky, a half-hearted Union 
man, introduced a similar resolution, with a preamble set- 
ting forth that loyal citizens of Paducah, including two who 
had served in the army, were expelled from their homes. 
Before it came up for consideration the President had coun- 
termanded the order, but Powell still pressed his resolu- 
tion, insisting that though Grant was " a most brave and 
gallant soldier," the Senate ought to put its condemnation 
upon ' ' this most atrocious, illegal, inhuman, and monstrous 
order." A long debate followed. Clark, of New Hamp- 
shire urged : — 

" I do not believe it would be wise to condemn the brave General Grant 
unheard * * * when he and his soldiers are struggling in the field to put 
this rebellion down." 

Wilson, of Massachusetts, added : — 

" I dare say that the rules and regulations of the army were interfered 
with in General Grant's department by persons calling themselves Jews, who 
ought to have been excluded ; but I think the order excluding a whole class 
of men is utterly indefensible. It was at once and promptly revoked by the 
commander-in-chief of the army, to the satisfaction of the whole people of 
the country, and there, it seems to me, the matter may rest." 

And the Senate, thirty to seven, tabled the resolution. 



1862.] PuilPOSE OF GtRANtVs MOVEMENT. 279 



CHAPTER XXIII. 



VICKSBURG SEVEN ATTEMPTS. 



The General looked with longing eyes at Yicksburg. 
It was the only point, except Port Hudson, two hundred 
and forty miles below, where the rebels now commanded 
the Mississippi ; and, when it fell, Port Hudson would fall 
with it. As Sherman said, the possession of Yicksburg 
was the possession of America. 

So long as the rebels held it they could keep a long 
section of the river free from our gun-boats, and secure open 
communication with the rich pasture lands of Texas. Fully 
alive to its vital importance, they had been strengthening 
its fortifications and increasing its garrison all summer. 

L— Holly Springs. 

Ever since the fall of Sumter, the Northwest had be- 
lieved that when the Mississippi was opened the war would 
be ended. Grant, therefore, looked upon it both with the 
desire of a soldier and the enthusiasm of a Western man. 
His original purpose in this campaign had been to move down 
by land to the rear of Yicksburg, and compel its evacuation. 

He still drew his supplies by rail from Columbus, Ken- 
tucky, two hundred miles in his rear ; and the difficulty of 
keeping this long line open had already confirmed him in 
the soundness of an opinion he originally held, that the 
proper line of advance upon Yicksburg was by the Missis- 
sippi River. Determined to adopt it, first by a detachment, 
and if that failed, with his entire army, he had telegraphed 
Halleck* : — 

" How far South would you like me to go ? * * * With our present force 
it would not be prudent to go beyond Grenada, and to continue to hold our 
present line of communication." 

* December third. 



280 



VlCKSBUEG AND ITS APPROACHES. 



[1862. 




The Seven Campaigns against Vicksburg. 



18C2.] 



Sherman Ordered to Take It. 



281 



COLUMBUS, KENTUCKY, TO 



Miles. 

Jackson, Tenn 8G 

La Grange 130 

Corinth, Miss 143 



Miles. 



Holly Springs. . .' 158 

Oxford 187 

Grenada 235 



FROM VICKSBURG UP, BY RIVER. 



Miles. 
Young's Point, month of Yazoo 11 

Killiken's Bend 25 

Lake Providence 70 

Moon Lake 320 



Miles. 

Memphis 410 

Cairo GGO 

St. Louis 8G0 

St. Paul 1651 



FROM VICKSBURG DOWN, BY RIVER. 



Miles. 

"Warrenton 10 

3STe w Carthage 35 

Hard Times, mouth of Big Black 50 

Grand Gulf 55 

De Shroon's 58 

Bruinsburg 70 



Miles. 

Rodney 83 

Mouth of Red River 190 

Port Hudson 240 

Baton Rouge 260 

New Orleans 390 

Gulf of Mexico 490 



FROM VICKSBURG, BY LAND. 



Miles. 

Port Gibson (southeast) 30 

Hankinson's Ferry (south). ... 20 

Crossing of Big Black (east). . . 10 

Edwards Station 18 



Miles. 



Champion's Hill 28 

Bolton 28 

Clinton 35 

Jackson, Miss 45 



Always willing to forego personal glory, after first ob- 
taining permission from Ilalleck, lie had instructed Sherman* 
to proceed with thirty thousand men, drawn from Memphis 
and Helena, and aided by the gun-boat fleet, 

"to the reduction of Vicksburg, in such a manner as circumstances and 
your own judgment may dictate. * * * I will hold the forces here in 
readiness to co-operate with you in such a manner as the movements of the 
enemy may make necessary." 

But while thus holding his forces and keeping garrisons 
at Columbus, Jackson (Tennessee), Bolivar, Corinth, Holly 



* December eighth. 



282 



The Rebels Threaten Grant, 



[1862. 



Springs, and other points along the line in his rear, he met 
with serious disaster. Colonel Dickey, sent from Oxford 
on a cavalry raid against the Mobile and Ohio Railway, re- 
turned one afternoon* and reported that he had effectually 
destroyed many miles of the road. He had torn up the 
track "between several stations, "burned such and such 
bridges and marched thus and thus. 

Grant listened courteously, but with little seeming in- 
terest, until Dickey related, that near Pontotoc he had 
crossed the rear of a rebel column, variously reported by 
negroes at from five to fifteen thousand strong, and rapidly 
moving northward. At this the General's indifference in- 
stantly disappeared. Leaving the travel- stained colonel in 
the middle of a sentence, he sprang up, hurried to the tele- 
graph office half a mile away, and, seating himself beside 
the operator, wrote sheet after sheet with exceeding rapidity, 
directing all commanders northward to call in their detach- 
ments which were out guarding bridges and railways, and 
to patrol roads, exercise the utmost vigilance, and hold their 
posts at whatever cost. 

Colonel Murphy, of Wisconsin, commanding at Holly 
Springs, received these orders while at dinner. He ac- 
knowledged them, and gave directions to have them carried 
out — the next morning. 

How often is the difference between this moment and to- 
morrow morning the difference between easy escape and 
irretrievable ruin ! That very evening, Bowers, of Grant' s 
staff, on special duty at Holly Springs, said to a friend : — 

" I don't like the condition of things here. Murphy is 
utterly unfit to command. Everything is at loose ends ; and 
if the rebels were to come, they could easily capture us." 

Bowers was making a tabular roll of the strength, sup- 
plies, and head-quarters of every command in Grant's de- 
partment. After midnight he finished the document, placed 
it on his mantel, and went to bed. 

Early next morning he was awakened by an altercation 
going on in front of his office. Stepping to the door in his 



* December nineteenth. 



3 3G2.] And Capture Holly Springs. 2S3 

drawers, lie asked sharply of two men, apparently threaten- 
ing the sentry : — 

"What the devil are you interfering with that guard 
for?" 

"Come out here, you Yankee , and we'll 

show you!" 

The rebels held the town ! Bowers sprang back, threw 
the precious roll upon the embers on his hearth, and re- 
turned to parley with the rebels, who now swarmed in his 
room— all the while waiting, waiting, waiting for the paper 
to burn. But the coals were almost dead. Hiding his in- 
tense anxiety, he kept up a lively conversation with his cap- 
tors, until at last, thank Heaven ! the paper flashed into a 
blaze. The confederates, now noticing it, tried to save it, 
but were too late. 

Bowers was taken before Van Dorn, whom he found 
reading, from a captured letter-book, Grant's dispatches 
directing the battles of Iuka and Corinth. As Van Dorn 
had commanded the rebels in both, this literature in- 
terested him, and on leaving he carried the book away. 
He was killed a few months later, and it has never been 
recovered. Unfortunately there was no copy, so Grant's 
orders about one of his most brilliant campaigns are lost to 
history. 

Van Dorn looked up from his book when Bowers was 
brought before him, and ordered the prisoner taken out and 
paroled. But the aide, confident that the enemy must soon 
give up the place and their captives, declined to take the 
obligation. Thereupon the officer who had him in charge 
threatened to take him away at the heels of his horse. 

" Very well," said Bowers, "we can stand that kind of 
treatment to prisoners if you can. It is your turn to-day, 
but it will be ours to-morrow." 

The captured garrison contained fifteen hundred men. 
Many refused to be paroled, and shortly, our forces ap- 
proaching, the rebels fled and left them behind. 

Bowers had edited a democratic paper, and was still 
"conservative," but various indignities which he saw of- 
fered to fellow- prisoners made him thenceforth a "radical." 



284 He Subsists on the Country. [1862. 

The General, greatly pleased with his conduct, presented 
him with an elegant sword, bearing an inscription which 
betokened his approbation. 

Holly Springs was Grant's secondary base of supplies, 
and a thousand bales of cotton, beside a million dollars' 
worth of ordnance, commissary, and medical stores, were 
destroyed. Never in his military career did he meet with 
any disaster which he took so much to heart, and he indig- 
nantly dismissed the weak and incapable Murphy from the 
service of the United States. 

At all points south of Jackson, Tennessee, the rebel at- 
tacks were repulsed. But, between Jackson, and Columbus, 
Kentucky, Forrest' s cavalry cut the railroad in many places, 
severing Grant's communications, not only with the North 
but with many portions of his own department. 

He was two hundred miles in the enemy's country, and 
winter rains were setting in. The neighboring citizens were 
delighted at his misfortune, but their glee was short-lived. 
Military traditions required that he should surrender his 
army. But he was never a stickler for the proprieties, and 
now, as always, emergency brought out his wonderful 
resources. He subsisted his troops upon the grain and 
cattle of the rebel farmers for two weeks, until communica- 
tion was re-opened. It was his hrst experience in living 
entirely upon the enemy — a resource of which he availed 
himself subsequently, with the happiest results. * 

His army fell back to Holly Springs, and about Christ- 
mas started across the country toward Memphis. Cadwalla- 
der, correspondent of the Chicago Times, pressed ahead to 
get his dispatches about the disaster through to the North, 
in advance of all other information. Guerrillas frequently 
shot at, and finally captured him ; but on learning his 

* Grant lias told mo, when discussing this campaign, that. had he known then, 
what he soon afterward learned, the possibility of subsisting an army of thirty thou- 
sand men without supplies other than those drawn from the enemy's country, he could 
at that time have pushed on to the rear of Vicksburg, and probably have succeeded 
in capturing the place. But no experience of former wars, nor of the war of the 
rebellion, warranted him in supposing that he could feed his army exclusively from 
the country. — Badeau. 



1362.] Sherman's Repulse at Chickasaw Bayou. 285 

vocation and what journal he served, they released him, not 
even taking his horse. So his reports were the earliest, 
and proved a tall feather for his cap. 

II. — Chickasaw Bayou. 

Sherman's attempt upon Vicksburg had been a disas- 
trous failure. Neither he nor Grant expected it to succeed 
unless the latter could keep Pemberton's army in the inte- 
rior while the former surprised Vicksburg. But Pember- 
ton, with great celerity, led to Vicksburg the troops with 
whom he had been confronting Grant ; while, by some inex- 
plicable mystery, Sherman heard nothing of the capture of 
Holly Springs. 

Nine days after the rebels occupied that place and cut 
Grant's communications, Sherman made an attack'- at 
Chickasaw Bayou, a few miles up the Yazoo. Taking his 
command through a most difficult and swampy region, f ho 
charged up the steep bluffs, feeling sure he could find a 
weak place somewhere in the long line. His troops be- 
haved with the utmost gallantry ; but they were repulsed 
with great slaughter, losing over eighteen hundred men- 
nine times more than the enemy. They buried their dead 
and carried off their wounded under a lias; of truce. 

This second disaster excited loud complaint throughout 
the North, and both generals were denounced as utterly 
unlit to be intrusted with the lives of soldiers. Grant, 
though grieved at the repulse, defended his subordinate. 

" Was not Sherman to blame ?" asked a friend. 

" Not at all," was his prompt reply. " He did exactly 
what he was told to do, and no man could have done it 
better." 

" He was badly defeated." 

" True ; but that was not his fault nor mine ; it was one 
of the inevitable accidents of war." 

McClernand, an old Illinois politician, and a personal 

* December twenty-ninth. 

f "Agreeably (to alligators) diversified by swamps, sloughs, lagoons, and 
bayous— a mire upon quicksands."— Greeley's American Conflict. 



286 Grant Takes Command of the Front. [i863. 

friend of Lincoln, declared himself "tired of furnishing 
brains for the Army of the Tennessee," and induced the 
amiable President, against Halleck' s earnest protest, to give 
him charge of an independent expedition against Vicks- 
burg. He arrived at Young's Point just after Sherman's 
repulse, and that patriotic soldier promptly turned over the 
command to him. 

Grant had no confidence in McClernand, and would fain 
have given Sherman a chance to retrieve his injured reputa- 
tion ; but the seniority of McClernand rendered it impossi- 
ble. So Grant, who ranked every other general in the 
West, went to Young's Point, assumed command in per- 
son*, and put the protesting McClernand at the head of 
the Twelfth Corps. 

Our General at length commanded resources practi- 
cally unlimited for the capture of Yicksburg. His expedi- 
tion consisted of fifty thousand men, encamped at Young's 
Point and at Milliken's Bend ; and Admiral Porter's co-ope- 
rating fleet of sixty steam-vessels, carrying eight hundred 
men and two hundred and eighty guns. 

For several hundred miles above the mouth of the Mis- 
sissippi the cotton and sugar plantations and their build- 
ings are lower than the surface of the river, which is only 
kept in its bed by levees on each bank from four to ten feel 
wide and from ten to fifteen high. Our forces were en- 
camped upon the levee, on the west side. Head-quarters 
were on the Magnolia ; and the quartermaster and com- 
missary officers also occupied steamers. 

Small- pox prevailed, and at one time a third of the arm; 
was on the sick-list. The season had been so unusually wet 
that there was no dry land except upon the levee, and that 
was full of graves. The road for supplies ran along at tin 
water's edge, and the river, steadily rising, encroached mor< 
and more upon these resting-places of the sleepers. Wagon- 
wheels would sometimes cut off the end of a coffin, or thnr 
it altogether out of its shallow bed — a ghastly spectacle. 
The empty coffin of a small-pox patient, whose body ha( 

* January thirtieth. 



1863.] A New Bed for the Mississippi. 287 

been sent north, was found by a head-quarters negro, and he 
not knowing its original use, and apparently unacquainted 
with such a luxury for the dead, made his bed in it for 
several nights, to the horror of the staff when they learned 
of it. The unfastidious African never recovered his popu- 
larity after bringing the walls of that undesirable bed- 
chamber betwixt the wind and his nobility. 

How should Vicksburg he taken? Its front was very 
strongly defended, so the first step must be to effect a lodg- 
ment in the rear. This might be done (1), by going up the 
Yazoo, and marching behind the city from the north ; or, 
(2), by going down the Mississippi, and coming up from the 
south. 

And the two ways had their two difficulties. To ascend 
the Yazoo, Haine's Bluff, ten miles from the mouth, and 
thoroughly fortified, must be captured or turned. To go 
down the Mississippi, the formidable batteries of the main 
stronghold must be passed. 

Three months were spent in endeavors to get behind the 
town. These attempts shall be described separately, though 
two or three of them were being made simultaneously. 

III. — Williams' Canal, or Cut-off. 

Vicksburg is at the extreme point or toe of a long, nar- 
row peninsula, shaped like a foot, around which the Mis- 
sissippi bends. It was proposed to cut a canal across the 
land at the heel of this foot, with sufficient depth of water 
for steamers to run through it to the river below, passing 
three miles and a half west of the Vicksburg batteries, and 
just out of range. 

The plan seemed feasible. The crooked lower Missis- 
sippi frequently breaks its banks, and makes a cut-off of ten 
or twenty miles across the country, quite abandoning the 
old bed. AVas Nature a better engineer than West Point 
could turn out i Were not her forces, directed by skilled 
human intelligence, stronger than her forces acting blindly ? 

General Williams, coming up from New Orleans, had 
already begun this cut-off, ten feet wide and six deep, which 



288 The Mississippi Declines It. [18G3. 

"was to be scooped out by the entering current into a new 
bed for the river, leaving Vicksburg high and dry three 
miles and a half from everywhere. 

President Lincbln believed in it. The Father of Waters, 
however, did not, for he only sent a tantalizing rill trickling 
through the ditch. The engineers had not hit upon the 
proper relation of angles between the canal and the stream. 

On Grant's arrival, he visited the ditch with his staff. 
The aides laughed at it, the older engineers significantly 
shrugged their shoulders, and the General reported to Hal- 
leck that it was not likely to succeed. But work kept the 
soldiers out of mischief, and no possibility must be neglect- 
ed. So four thousand men were employed to enlarge it, and 
cut a new mouth to catch the current at the right angle. 

It did " catch it." The waters rose rapidly until* they 
burst through the dam at the upper end, filled the canal so 
that no further work could be done upon it, overflowed the 
peninsula, drowned many horses, and swept away tools and 
tents, the men saving their lives with difficulty. Attempts 
to repair the dam were fruitless, and the ' ' big ditch ' ' was 
abandoned, to the great relief of the rebels. 

IV. — Lake Providence. 

On the west, or Louisiana, side of the Mississippi, seventy 
miles above Vicksburg, is Lake Providence, six miles long. 
South of it, for six hundred miles to the Gulf, stretches a 
labyrinthine net-work of little bayous or creeks, which have 
been the beds of large streams in times past, and in that 
shifting alluvium frequently become so again. The lake 
itself is but a fragment of the old bed of the Great River. 

From its west end the bayous communicate with head- 
waters of the Red River. If a channel were cut one mile 
from the Mississippi to the lake, could not steamers pass 
down the Red, and thence into the Mississippi two hundred 
miles below Vicksburg % This would enable troops to come 
up and attack the town from the south. The gaining of 
twenty miles down the river would involve seven hundred 

* March eighth. 



1863 ] Toiling among the Swamps. 289 

miles of roundabout navigation, Ibut steamboat transporta- 
tion was cheap, and the prize tempting. 

The canal was cut and boats passed into Lake Provi- 
dence. Lo ! the bayous below were choked with obstinate 
cypresses. For two weeks McPherson's men toiled like 
beavers, but were unable to open them far, though little 
steamers did thread them for a short distance. 

The rebels feared that the whole river might be turned 
into the Red, and thence into the Atchafalaya, opening a 
new channel to the Gulf, and leaving Vicksburg, Natchez, 
Baton Rouge, and New Orleans, insignificant inland towns. 
But Grant never had much faith in the project, which 
proved a dead failure.* 

V. — Yazoo Pass. 

Three hundred and twenty miles above Vicksburg, and 
a few miles east of the Mississippi — with which a tortuous 
channel connects it— is Moon Lake, also a former bed of the 
river. A bayou leads from it into the Coldwater, and thence 
into the Tallahatchee, which empties into the Yazoo. Could 
this channel be opened our boats might reach the Yazoo, 
and go down that river to establish a base above Haine's 
Bluff, from which Vicksburg could be taken in the rear. 

This route seemed to Grant more feasible than any of 
the others, for in former years, trading boats from the Mis- 
sissippi had frequently navigated the lake and bayous, 
which were therefore named "the Yazoo Pass." 

The levee was cut and steamers passed into Moon Lake.f 
Thence to the Coldwater fifteen miles, the bayou required 
clearing out. This would have been easy had a force gone 
forward instantly to take possession of its eastern end. 
But that precaution was neglected, and the vigilant rebels, 
impressing hundreds of negroes into the service, instantly 
began to fill its bed with enormous trees. 

The stream proved as crooked as a worm fence, and the 
region impenetrable as an Indian jungle or the Dismal 
Swamp of Virginia. Constant rains flooded the country, 

* March twenty-seventh. •}• February fourth. 

T 



290 Repulsed at Port Pembertow. [ 18 ^3. 

but the Union soldiers worked cheerily in water up to their 
necks, clearing out obstructions which the rebels a mile or 
two in advance were putting in with equal zeal. 

Finally the channel was opened, and after a vexatious 
delay in procuring light transports and gun-boats, General 
Ross with forty-five hundred men reached the Coldwater. 
Thence through dense forests the expedition moved cau- 
tiously down the river for two hundred and fifty miles, 
protected from guerrillas by floods which inundated the 
country for miles from the shore. In ten days it reached 
the Tallahatchee. 

So far so good. At last the way seemed clear, and Grant 
gave orders for forwarding his whole army. But while it 
was delayed for steamers of draft light enough to navi- 
gate the shallow waters, the rebels improved the precious 
minutes in strengthening Fort Pemberton, where the Talla- 
hatchie and the Yallabusha unite to form the Yazoo. This 
work had only two guns, but they commanded both rivers 
completely. The ground on its entire front was under 
water, and the post utterly unapproachable for infantry. 
Fort Pemberton must be captured by the navy or not at all. 

Our gun-boats bombarded it* until one was disabled, 
and six men were killed and twenty-five wounded, with- 
out any perceptible effect upon the enemy. The case ap- 
peared hopeless, and the fleet withdrew. 

Had the attack continued but one hour longer the post 
would have surrendered, as the rebels were almost out of 
ammunition. But it was a fortunate failure, for success 
would have insured only the evacuation of Vicksburg, not 
the destruction of Pemberton' s army. 

VI. — Steele's Bayou. 

Meanwhile, the sleepless foe, over his interior line from 
Vicksburg, threw heavy re-enforcements toward Fort Pem- 
berton, until Grant had grave apprehensions that Ross's 
force would be cut off among those dense forests and in- 
tricate bayous. 

* March eleventh and thirteenth. 



1363.] The Pleasures of Bayou Navigation. 291 

He adopted another plan, with the twofold purpose of 
making* a diversion to assure the escape of Ross, and — the 
end his steady eye never lost sight of — reaching the rear of 
Yicksburg. Seven miles up the Yazoo, and just below 
Haine's Bluff, is the mouth of Steele's Bayou, which, con- 
necting with Black Bayou and Deer Creek, forms part of a 
continuous route into the Sunflower. Could our iron-clads 
and transports reach the latter, they might float down to the 
Yazoo, cutting off re-enforcements for Fort Pemberton, per- 
mitting Ross to fall back or advance at pleasure, and getting 
behind the much-coveted city. By this route the whole 
distance would be but one hundred and fifty miles. 

Admiral Porter, supported by Sherman, starting up 
Steele 1 s Bayou with little steamers and gun-boats, found it 
almost impossible to penetrate through the drift-wood and 
overhanging trees. Low branches overhead tore off chim- 
neys, guards, and pilot-houses, and growing cypresses and 
willows obstructed the bed of the stream. The men toiled 
as if their salvation depended upon it, sawing off stumps 
under water, and pulling up trees by the roots. 

But the rebels repeated their old game, felling trees and 
filling up the bed of the stream with bricks. Deer Creek is 
very narrow. Overlapping branches formed a complete 
roof above the steamers, while on both sides parts of trunks 
had to be sawed off to let them squeeze through. From the 
guards of transports one could step directly ashore, and the 
gun-boats had to be worked around sharp bends by hand. 

The confederates not only harassed the expedition with 
musketry, artillery, and fallen trees on Porter's front, but 
also began to fell trees in his rear, making it as impossible 
to return as to go forward. Sherman's infantry, however, 
came up and drove them away, and the boats backed 
slowly down, there being no room to turn. This expedi- 
tion also was a failure. 

Cadwallader, the vigilant, did not wait for the steamers, 
but induced two negroes to steal a skiff, upon which the 
three floated seventy-five miles down the river through the 
enemy's country, enabling the journalist to get off his dis- 
patches two days in advance of all rivals. 



292 "I Rather Like the Man." [1863. 

Grant returned to Milliken's Bend* keenly disappointed 
at the failure of tlie Yazoo Pass and Steele Bayou move- 
ments. These attempts had proved the wonderful vigilance 
of the rebels. Whenever he penetrated into their remotest 
swamps and forests, he was sure to find them at the vital 
point, offering vigorous and effective resistance. They 
showed how earnestness can make an idle, uninventive, un- 
enterprizing people watchful, ingenious, and tireless. 

VII. —-Milliken's Bend and New Carthage Cut-off. 

Bayous connect New Carthage — thirty -five miles below 
Vicksburg — with Milliken' s Bend, twenty-five miles above. 
Grant had now determined in some way to throw his force 
below, and cross the Mississippi. 

He cut a short canal, cleared out the bayous with dredg- 
ing machines, and marched his advance to New Carthage, f 
The entire army was about to follow, when a rise in the 
river broke through the levee, deluged the country, and 
left New Carthage an island. But our troops, accustomed 
to every sort of obstacle, laid four bridges, two of them six 
hundred feet long, across the waters, for infantry to march 
upon ; and one steamer had already passed through the 
bayous and canal, when the erratic river suddenly fell again, 
and quite destroyed the value of this cut-off. 

So ended the seventh attempt. Had any one of them 
succeeded, the world would have called it sagacious and 
dazzling ; but now exultant Southern rebels and carping 
Northern peace men declared them all impracticable, and 
worthy only of an incompetent and drunken general. 

Again the country grew clamorous. Strenuous efforts 
were made to induce the President to remove Grant, and 
the newspapers named half a dozen successors for him. 
But, though sorely impatient at heart, he replied : — 

" No, I rather like the man, and I think I will try him 
a little longer." 

Was ever trust more deserved? Was ever patience 
more wise? 

* March twenty-seventh. f April sixth. 



1863.] Grant Favoring Negro Regiments. 293 



CHAPTER XXIV. 



ALL OR NOTHING. 



Adjutant-General Lorenzo Thomas now came from 
Washington to organize negro regiments. Grant had 
already paved the way for this, in obedience to the Presi- 
dent's wish that commanders should help remove the pre- 
judices of our white troops against them. He had issued 
an order* adding three hundred contrabands to the pioneer 
corps of each division. They were paid ten dollars a month, 
with the same rations and clothing as enlisted men, and 
were "used for the purpose of saving every soldier, as far 
as possible, for the ranks." 

The plan had worked to a charm. The blacks proved 
unexpectedly faithful, zealous, and tractable ; the whites, 
already quite willing to arm them with the spade, were los- 
ing their old antipathy against arming them with the musket. 

Thomas enlisted all these pioneers in his negro regiments 
except those of the vehement Logan, who swore that he 
would not give his up — and did not. Grant did nothing in 
a half-hearted way, but entered zealously into the move- 
ment, and reported to Halleck : — f 

" At least three of my corps commanders take hold of the new policy of 
arming the negroes, and using them against the enemy, with a will. They 
at least are so much of soldiers as to feel themselves under obligations to 
carry out a policy which they would not inaugurate, in the same good faith 
and with the same zeal as if it were of their own choosing. You may rely 
on my carrying out any policy ordered by proper authority to the lest of my 
ability.'''' 

The General, conscious that he might be removed any 
day, was also thoroughly confident of ultimate success if 
4 'let alone." He wrote to his father: — "The Government 
asks a good deal of me, but not more than I feel fully able 
to perforin." 

* March seventh. f April nineteenth. 



294 His Anxiety About Vicksburg. [1863. 

A friend calling one evening, found Grant alone in his 
office, the ladies' cabin of the Magnolia. He said : — 

' ' The problem is a difficult one, but I shall certainly 
solve it. Vicksburg can be taken. I shall give my days 
and nights to it, and shall surely take it." 

He made the remark with peculiar earnestness, and in his 
half-abstracted way, as if answering impatient criticisms or 
his own misgivings, rather than those of his visitor. But 
his doubts were never traitors to make him lose the good 
he else might win by fearing to attempt. 

At this period a letter- writer thus pictured him : — 

"Grant is more approachable and liable to interruption than a merchant 
would allow himself to be in his store. Citizens come in, introduce them- 
selves, and say, as I heard one man : — ' I have no business with you, General, 
but just wanted to have a little talk with you, because folks at home will 
ask me if I did.' He is one of the most engaging men I ever saw — quiet, 
gentle, extremely, even uncomfortably modest ; but confiding, and of an 
exceedingly kind disposition. He gives the impression of a man of strong 
will and capacity underlying these feminine traits." 

Hurlbut commanding the district of Memphis, through 
which mails passed to the army, had forbidden the Chicago 
Times to be brought into it, and thus the paper was kept 
out of our camps. The Times was nearer being an out-and- 
out rebel advocate than any other Northern journal pub- 
lished outside of New York. But Illinois democratic 
soldiers who had no sympathy with its extreme views, 
desired to read it. 

Grant, though bitterly hostile to that class of journals, 
countermanded Hurlbut' s order, on the grounds that any 
paper which the War Department tolerated in the North 
should also be allowed to circulate in the army ; and that 
even if to be suppressed, it must be done by department, 
and not district commanders. 

Notwithstanding the depression caused by the imminent 
danger of their chief s removal, there was merriment enough 
among the staff. Logan, Steele, and several other generals 
visited head-quarters one night, and remained until it grew 
late. Grant urged them to stay, but Steele only accepted. 



1863.] "You will Sleep here, Steele." 295 

Colonel Riggin was absent, and when bedtime came, Grant 
conducted Steele to Riggin' s state-room, expecting to offer 
him choicest quarters, for the aide was of fastidious and 
luxurious tastes. The host opened the door, saying : — 

"You will sleep here, Steele." 

But there, ensconced between Riggin' s fine white sheets, 
lay his huge, black, not over-clean, body-servant ! This was 
too much lor an equanimity which had proved equal to sorest 
trials. The angry General stirred up the darky, and peremp- 
torily ordered him to leave the boat and never to return. 
Next morning the order was not enforced, but one aide, at 
least, enjoyed his chiefs vexation quite as much as, a year 
earlier, the chief had enjoyed the clipping of the tail of 
Rawlins's war-horse. 

A lady connected with the Sanitary Commission, who 
spent much time at the front during these months, writes : — 



" At a celebration on the twenty-second of February, while all around 
were drinking toasts in sparkling champagne, I saw Grant push aside a glass 
of wine, and, taking up a glass of Mississippi water, with the remark, 'This 
suits the matter in hand,' drink to the toast, ' God gave us Lincoln and 
Liberty ; let us fight for both. 1 

* * * " On board the head-quarters boat at Milliken's Bend, a lively 
gathering of officers and ladies had assembled. Cards and music were the 
order of the evening. Grant sat in the ladies' cabin, leaning upon a table 
covered with innumerable maps and routes to Vicksburg, wholly absorbed 
in contemplation of the great work before him. He paid no attention to 
what was going on around, neither did any one dare to interrupt him. For 
hours he sat thus, until the loved and lamented McPherson stepped up to 
him with a glass of liquor in his hand, and said, 'General, this won't do; 
you are injuring yourself; join with us in a few toasts, and throw this burden 
off your mind.' Looking up and smiling, he replied: 'Mac, you know your 
whisky won't help me to think ; give me a dozen of the best cigars you can 
find, and, if the ladies will excuse me for smoking, I think by the time I have 
finished them I shall have this job pretty nearly planned.' Thus he sat; and 
when the company retired we left him there, still smoking and thinking." 



The repeated disappointments of the past only stimulated 
him to a new endeavor. No previous project had seemed 
so impracticable, none had been so daring. It was in the 
old heroic spirit : — 



296 A New and Daeing Plan. t 1863 - 

" He either fears his fate too much 
Or his deserts are small, 
Who dares not put it to the touch, 
To win or lose it all." 

He staked every tiling upon it ; and relenting Fortune, tired 
of battling against one whom no disappointment could 
cheek, crowned it with her approving smiles. 

It was no sudden inspiration. For months the General 
had thought of it as a last resort. When he and the staff, 
three months earlier, first visited the Williams Cut-off, Raw- 
lins, after contemplating the tiny rill which trickled through 
it, exclaimed : — 

' ' What' s the use of a canal unless it can be dug at least 
fifty feet deeper? This ditch will never wash out large 
enough in all the ages to admit our steamboats." 

Two days later, at head-quarters, when several generals 
and engineers were considering plans, the staff officer again 
remarked : — 

"Wilson and I have a project of our own, for taking 
Yicksburg." 

"What is it?" asked Sherman. 

"Why, not to dig a ditch, but to use the great one 
already dug by Nature — the Mississippi River ; protect our 
transports with cotton-bales, run them by the batteries at 
night, and march the men down the Louisiana shore, ready 
to be ferried across." 

"What !" replied Sherman ; "these boats % these trans- 
ports \ these mere shells \ They wouldn' t live a minute in 
the face of the enemy's guns." 

Grant, though listening intently, said never a word. But, 
subsequently, while the expeditions already described were 
going on, the plan was often discussed. Some river-men 
insisted that running the batteries was feasible, even for the 
frail transports. The General asked many practical ques- 
tions, but kept his thoughts to himself. 

Porter, who commanded the co-operating naval force, 
gave to every movement his enthusiastic support. He is the 
son of Commodore David Porter, who died in 1843, after the 
most brilliant naval career in American history, and he 



1863.] The Rebels Frightened by a Bakge. 297 

inherits in full his father' s professional skill and indomitable 
bravery. Our great conflict developed no other marked 
instance of hereditary military or naval capacity on either 
side, except in the case of Robert E. Lee. How rarely is any 
shining gift transmitted to the next generation ! "Helen's 
daughter shall not be more fair, nor Solomon's son more 
wise." Leveling Nature makes the poet's heir a commis- 
sioner of statistics, the flat-boatman's boy a statesman, and 
the statesman's — a simpleton. 

Before the tragedy of the campaign, Porter diverted the 
army with a little comedy. He rigged up an old coal barge 
into the semblance of a steam monitor, with smoke-stack 
made of pork barrels and furnaces of mud. One dark night 
she was towed within two miles of the Vicksburg batteries, 
and then left to float. The rebels opened on her with 
their heavy guns, and one of their rams fled in wild alarm 
at her approach. Our powerful iron-clad Indianola, after 
running their batteries successfully, had lately been cap- 
tured by them, and was now tied up for repairs at Warrenton. 
To prevent her from being retaken by this direful monster, 
they blew her up. Next morning, discovering how effectu- 
ally a worn-out scow had avenged their wooden guns at 
Manassas, their disgust and rage knew no bounds. 

Already Ellet's little wooden ram, Queen of the West, 
had run tha gantlet. One morning, just as the rising sun 
was driving the darkness before it down the river, the 
Queen, with no sign of life on board except the columns of 
black smoke that rolled from her chimneys, steamed silently 
toward Vicksburg. The moment she approached within 
range the upper batteries opened on her, but, though one 
hundred guns were almost instantly directed against her 
from every point of defense, only four shots struck her be- 
fore she was opposite the town. 

There she suddenly turned toward the rebel gun-boat 
City of Vicksburg, which was tied up at the bank. The 
enemy's artillerists and infantry, thinking her disabled and 
about to surrender, sent up a tremendous shout. But, to 
their consternation, she dashed right into their iron-clad, 
damaging it severely, and firing shots from all her guns. 



298 The "Queen" Passes their Batteeies. [1863. 

The cotton bales protecting her "boiler now took fire and 
a dozen shots penetrated her, but she got out of range with 
little injury, and afterward played havoc with rebel trans- 
ports and supplies on Red River and the lower Mississippi. 
She was finally stranded and captured, but not until her 
captain and three enterprising journalists had succeeded in 
escaping. After Ellet's gallant feat, the river-men about 
head-quarters were wont to say : — 

""Any of these boats could run by just as well as the 
Queen" 

Still, Grant pondered and asked questions, mentally 
sticking a pin in the two facts, that fragile steamers could 
pass the batteries on the front of Yicksburg, and that a large 
army could subsist upon the country in its rear. 

He was evolving a plan in which, though listening cour- 
teously to suggestions from many, he asked counsel of none. 
After maturing it, he heard patiently the adverse arguments 
of his most trusted lieutenant, but they did not swerve him 
a hair's breadth. Sherman, seeing only ruin in the new 
method, and firmly believing that Yicksburg should be 
attacked in the rear by an army marching overland from 
Memphis, said : — 

" Of course, I shall give the movement my heartiest sup- 
port, but I feel it my duty to protest in writing." 

4 'Very well," replied the General, "send along your 
protest." 

Next day," Sherman addressed Rawlins, the adjutant- 
general, earnestly suggesting that Grant call on his corps 
commanders — McClernand, McPherson, and himself — for 
their opinions, and adding : — 

" Unless this be done, there are men who will, in any result falling below 
the popular standard, claim that their advice was unheeded, and that fatal 
consequences resulted therefrom. * * * I make these suggestions with the 
request that General Grant simply read them, and give them, as I know he 
will, a share of his thoughts. I would prefer he should not answer, but 
merely give them as much or as little weight as they deserve. * * * What- 
ever plan of action he may adopt, will receive from me the same zealous 
co-operation and energetic support as though conceived by myself." 

April eighth. 



1863.] Varied Capacity of each Regiment. 299 

Grant read Sherman's letter, and, without a word to any- 
body, put it in his pocket, Months later, after Vicksburg 
was captured, happening to find it one day, he handed it 
back to its author, remarking : — 

"By the way, Sherman, here is something which will 
interest you." 

Other trusted subordinates earnestly opposed the plan, 
but the captious McClernand, the sanguine McPherson, the 
energetic Logan, and the clear-headed Rawlins, gave it 
hearty support. 

After marching his army down the west bank below 
Vicksburg, Grant would need there (1) gun-boats to cap- 
ture the batteries on the east bank, (2) supplies to feed 
his men, and (3) steamers to ferry them across the river. 

The troops reached New Carthage. Transports — their 
boilers protected by hay and cotton-bales — loaded with 
rations and forage, and towing barges which also carried 
supplies, were sent by night past the batteries, under cover 
of Porter' s iron-clads. 

The officers and crews of all the transports but two, 
working only on wages, and not sworn into the service, de- 
clined so hazardous an enterprize. But volunteers were not 
wanting ; when were they in our conflict, however fool- 
hardy the venture \ Ten times as many offered as were 
needed, and to those who were so fortunate as to be selected, 
others offered ten dollars for the privilege of risking their 
lives in this midnight gantlet, 

President Lincoln once asserted that there was prob- 
ably no regiment in the Union armies which did not 
contain men capable of carrying on successfully all the 
departments of our Government— executive, legislative, ju- 
dicial. Every regiment, at least, had inventors and arti- 
sans who could do any thing, and Grant now found in 
his ranks pilots, engineers, and captains, thoroughly fa- 
miliar with steamers and machinery, and the river's chan- 
nel. 

On a dark night/" the first expedition started to run the 

* April sixteenth. 



800 Seven Transports Kun the Gantlet. [is63. 

rebel "batteries. Before midnight, Porter's flag-ship, the 
Benton, which led the fleet, was discovered by the enemy. 
Instantly an alarm-rocket shot up, the guns opened, and for 
miles up and down the river, the Mississippi bank Avas 
ablaze. Our iron-clads promptly replied with their heaviest 
guns, while the transports, hugging the Louisiana shore, ran 
by as fast as possible. 

The rebels burned houses, making the night as light as 
day. Again and again the transports were struck. The 
Henry Clay was fired by an exploding shell ; but her crew 
took to their yawls and were saved. Through the other 
fragile steamers, whose sides were like pasteboard, shots 
crashed and tore, but the men stood gallantly at their posts, 
and two hours and a half after Porter drew the first fire, 
the last vessel passed out of range. 

On the gun-boats not a man was killed, and only eight 
were wounded. On the steamers and barges nobody was 
even hit. Before daylight the entire fleet, save the ill-fated 
Henry Clay, was received at New Carthage by Grant' s in- 
fantry with shouts of delight. 

To the soldiers who had run the steamers on this daring 
race, the General promptly gave furloughs for forty days, 
and transportation to and from home. 

A second midnight expedition of six transports and 
twelve barges passed the batteries six days later, with the 
loss of one steamer and six barges sunk, one man killed 
and half a dozen wounded. 

The people of the East, knowing about as much of the 
geography of the region of Grant's meanderings as they did 
of Japan, were utterly bewildered by the fragmentary and 
"mixed-up" newspaper telegrams about Lake Providence, 
Moon Lake, Steele's Bayou, Williams' Cut-off, the Ya- 
zoo, the Yallabusha, the Tallahatchie, and the Atchafalaya. 
They only knew that months dragged wearily by ; that 
there had been disaster at Holly Springs, and bloody re- 
pulse at Chickasaw Bayou ; that several later attempts had 
failed ; that the soldiers were reported dying from disease, 
and that the country was heart-sick for victory. Our 
General, alternately the public idol and the public scape- 



1863.] "Where Does He Get His Whisky." 301 

goat, was still in deep and growing disfavor. His canal and 
bayou projects were mercilessly ridiculed. The ever-con- 
venient charges of drunkenness were revived. When one 
party of grumblers demanded his removal, President Lin- 
coln, hiding his own sadness, asked, with well- simulated 
surprise : — 

' ' For what reason V ' 

r" Because he drinks so much whisky." 
u Ah! 3^es," (thoughtfully) " by the way, can you tell 
me where he gets his whisky \ He has given us about all 
the successes of the war, and if his whisky does it, I should 
like to send a barrel of the same brand to every general in 
the field." 
\ Grant never wasted energy. When there w^as nothing 
important to do, he appeared indolent, and seldom troubled 
himself about details. To subordinates he merely said, 
"Do this," leaving them to obey in their own manner. 
But now his activity was all-embracing. ]N T o details were 
too minute for him, no trouble was too great. While so ill 
from boils that he could hardly sit in the saddle, he rode 
forty miles one sweltering clay, to give oral instructions to 
McClernand, who commanded at New Carthage. 

On the east bank the few points where good roads leave 
the river, were all defended by garrisons, with earth-works 
and heavy guns. How could he gain a foot-hold? He 
determined to capture Grand Gulf, a bold promontory, 
fifty-five miles below Vicksburg, protected by twelve heavy 
guns and many lighter ones. Porter was to silence the 
batteries, then infantry were to land and storm the works. 

Ten thousand of McClernand' s men being embarked on 
transports and barges ready for action, Porter, with seven 
iron-clads and a wooden gun-boat, started one morning,* 
leading personally with his flag-ship. 

At the appointed moment, eight o'clock, he fired his first 
gun. With equal promptitude the enemy replied, and for 
five hours raged the most showy and tenacious artillery 
battle of the war, the gun-boats running round in a circle, 

* April twenty-ninth. 



302 Pouter's Repulse at Grand Gulf. [ 18 63. 

and pouring in their broadsides successively, at pistol-sliot 
distance from the rebel cannon at the water' s edge. 

The effort was useless. Porter easily silenced the lower 
or water batteries, but the works upon Grand Gulf proper 
were so high that he could make no impression. He did 
not disable a single gun. Every vessel of his fleet was fre- 
quently struck — one fifty times — and his loss was eighteen 
killed and fifty-six wounded. His flag-ship turned sullenly 
up the river, and the other iron-clads dropped below. 

The Benton was badly cut up ; strips of her iron armor 
were torn off, her deck was covered with splinters and re( 
with blood, and her cabin full of dead and wounded. 

Grant, who had watched the fight from a little tug, now 
boarded the admiral's vessel with his staff, and Washburne, 
who had come down on his invitation to accompany the 
movement. Porter said : — 

" It' s of no use, General. The thing has failed. It' s im- 
possible to take that battery with our boats." 

With that quickness of resource which is Grant' s great 
strength, he had a second plan ready the moment the first 
failed. He answered : — 

" Very well. You may attack again after dark to-night. 
"Under the noise of your firing, the transports can run by. 
I will march the soldiers down opposite Rodney, or to som( 
other convenient point where we can cross and take Grain 
Gulf in the rear." 

Half an hour after Porter had fired his last gun, a steamei 
ran her plank out to land the first detachment of troops at 
Hard Times, on the Louisiana side, above Grand Gulf. 

Hard Times, so called from its forlorn appearance, was 
only a cluster of tumble-down cabins. Not a white persoi 
was left, but twenty or thirty delighted negroes welcome( 
the troops. The first man to step ashore was Colonel Slack, 
of an Indiana regiment — a boisterous, good fellow but a life- 
long democrat, known to nearly all the army for his violent 
antipathy to negroes and abolitionists. Nevertheless, Slack 
was thoroughly devoted to the fiag he fought for. As he 
set foot on shore, a bouncing negress, with her head wrap- 
ped in a flaming kerchief, seized his hand with both her 



1863.] Thorough Loyalty of the Negroes. 303 

own, and shook it long and vigorously in hearty welcome, 
while she shouted : — 

" Bress de Lord ! Bress de Lord !". 

The troops from a dozen transports witnessed the colo- 
nel' s novel and rather embarrassing situation, and cheered 
and yelled with delight. Slack, looking extremely sheep- 
ish, accepted his blushing honors as gracefully as he could, 
and I never heard of his denouncing negroes afterward. 

Grant ordered the troops to march down the levee to 
De Shroon's, also on the west bank, and three miles below 
Grand Gulf. He remained at Hard Times to superintend 
the debarkation, while Washburne, who had borrowed a 
horse from some negroes, rode on ahead. De Shroon' s Land- 
ing had one pleasant balconied white house, shaded by glossy 
magnolias. It belonged to a French planter, who had de- 
camped with all his slaves, except one gray-haired, tottering 
negro and his wife. Washburne, who found the old couple 
in their little cabin back of the house, was the first Yankee 
they had ever seen, and they plied him with endless ques- 
tions about the North, "Mass'r Linkum's troops," and 
"Mass'r Linkum's flag." 

" The Congressman, once on Iris talking legs, 
Stirs up his knowledge to its thickest dregs ;" 

but this one, instead of drawing upon his own lore, cheered 
their faithful hearts by good tidings about the war. In 
the midst of their earnest inquiries, Grant's advance came 
in sight,— a long line of bine, crowned with gleaming mus- 
kets, and bearing the Starry Flag. The old negress threw 
up her hands, and jumped up and down, shouting, while 
tears streamed down her wrinkled cheeks : — 

" Dar come Mass'r Linkum's sogers ! Dar comes Mass'r 
Linkum' s flag. My God ! I neber spected to lib to see dat !" 

Grant ordered explorations on the eastern shore, sending 
out a lieutenant to find somebody who could give minute 
information. In the course of the night the officer returned, 
bringing an intelligent mulatto— a native of the vicinity- 
who had been that day in the confederate camp at Grand 
Gulf selling home-made beer. He said that at Bruinsburg, 



304 The River Crossed at Last. [1863. 

six miles below, on the east bank, there was a capital landing, 
and thence to Port Gibson — toward the rear of Grand Gnlf 
and Vicksburg — an excellent road obstructed by no swamps. 

This corroborated previous information ; and he seemed 
so clear-headed and truthful, that Grant and Porter steamed 
down to Bruinsburg, where they found a good landing and 
a capital thoroughfare. There the General determined to 
land, instead of going to Rodney, fifteen miles below. 

That night, under cover of a fierce artillery attack from 
Porter, our transports, one by one, ran the Grand Gulf bat- 
teries. The troops, who were bivouacked in the broad, fair 
fields back of De Shroon' s house, could hear the cannonade, 
and anxiously waited the issue. When the first steamer 
came in sight, those nearest the river greeted her with a 
ringing cheer, which was carried back through all the lines. 
Each succeeding vessel was received with shouts, till all 
had arrived in safety. 

The beginning was auspicious ; but it was of the utmost 
importance that Grant should cross to the east bank of the 
Mississippi before the enemy comprehended his movement. 
Early next morning,* therefore, his troops embarked in the 
lightest inarching order, and supplied with only three days' 
rations. The gun-boats of the zealous Porter assisted the 
transports in ferrying them over. 

Villages are few in that region, and Bruinsburg was 
only a landing at another deserted plantation. The General, 
the first man to step ashore, was welcomed by an aged negro 
with wide, wondering eyes, and his "heart in his voice," 
who confirmed the statement that the road to Port Gibson 
was high, dry, and good. So the advance marched forward 
a few miles and encamped, while the troops still arriving 
bivouacked at the landing for the rest of the day. 

Rhetoric followed the flag. On that pleasant summer 
night the army formed around a hollow square, while Wash- 
burne, Logan, Governor Yates, and others, standing upon 
a cart, regaled it with patriotic eloquence. 

* April thirtieth. 



1863.] Grant's Baggage for the Campaign. 305 



CHAPTER XXV. 

THE DOGS OF WAR. 

Eight miles out McClernand, who had the advance, 
encountered the enemy about midnight. Skirmishing was 
kept up until dawn, * when it developed into a battle. Grant 
hearing the guns, directed Hilly er : — 

"Remain here at the landing and superintend the cross- 
ing of the rest of the troops, issuing in my name whatever 
orders you may find necessary. When all have got over, 
come to my head-quarters." 

' ' Where will they be ? Shall you go on to Jackson, or 
move immediately across the Big Black and then turn to- 
ward Vicksburg ?" 

"Well, I don't exactly know till I've consulted Pem- 
berton !" 

Grant, stripping his army for the race, had required the 
men to leave behind every possible ounce of weight, except 
their clothing, arms, and ammunition, and would not even 
permit general officers to take a horse or a tent, lest they 
should retard the crossing. He was not one of those un- 
gracious leaders who show "the steep and thorny way," 
: but tread themselves "the primrose path of dalliance." He 
took no horse, tent, orderly, valise, or change of clothing. 
A brier- wood pipe, a pouch of tobacco, and a tooth-brush, 
formed the sum total of his personal baggage. Now he had 
to borrow a steed to carry him to the front. 

His eighteen thousand men were greatly embarrassed 
by the rising sun, which glared pitilessly in their faces, but 
he wrote back to McPherson : — "We are whipping them 
beautifully ; hurry up the troops." 

The rebels, numbering eleven thousand, obstinately con- 
tested their wooded, rough, and admirably defensible 

* May first. 



306 McPiieeson Charges the Rebel Rear. [i863. 

ground. Grant was everywhere on the front, directing 
subordinate sand pushing in divisions. Thoroughly ab- 
sorbed by the battle, he quite forgot himself. While sitting 
upon his horse beside Yates, the shells and bullets flew so 
thick that a regiment close by was ordered into a ravine for 
shelter. Still the General, smoking his pipe and intently 
watching a charge, never budged, but said, jocosely : — 

"Governor, it's too late to dodge after the ball has 
passed." 

Soon after, to the relief of the staff, he remarked : — 

" Now we will go and order Logan up." 

At noon, on our right and center, the rebels were thor- 
oughly whipped ; but on the left, seven hours of hard fight- 
ing had failed to dislodge them from a little valley, which 
completely hid them from view. Grant, therefore, ordered 
a new movement, led by the gallant McPherson. 

In repose, this favorite young officer was homely in 
face and figure, but now, with his plain features lighted 
up and his tall form erect, he looked the very ideal of 
a military hero. He dashed away at the head of his 
staff on his splendid black charger, touching his hat smil- 
ingly to a friend while they passed under fire, and remark- 



ing :— 



"You'll hear from us shortly. We are going to take 
those fellows in the rear." 

The General returned to his temporary head-quarters, an 
old plantation house, where the wounded and surgeons 
already thronged every room and both porches. He wished 
to send an order to McClernand, but he had no aide, no 
secretary, no pen, ink, or paper. Washburne, however, 
fished up a pencil from his pocket, and tore off the blank 
sheet of a letter, and Grant, sitting upon a log, began to 
write, using his slouched hat for a desk, when a tremendous 
yell was heard on the front. 

Grant. — "That's Mac and his men. They are routing 
the rebels out of that ravine." 

Washburne. — " Then it's a good time to go and look at 
them." 

They borrowed a pair of broken-down wagon horses, 



1863.] A Victory axd a Speech. 307 

with rope bridles, from two wandering " We-uns," natives 
of the neighborhood, who had come out to see the show, and 
jogged forward. McPherson reached the rebel rear un- 
discovered, and the enemy, utterly routed, had now fallen 
back. Five or six hundred Gray-coats, captured after a 
breathless race, were huddled together under guard, with 
countenances expressing the deep conviction that this is 
rather a weary world. Our exultant soldiers crowded 
around Grant's sorry nag, cheering lustily, and clamor- 
ing:— 

"A speech ! a speech ! a speech !" 

" Soldiers, I thank yon," he replied. "That is all I can 
say. You have done a good day's work to-day, but you 
must do a better one to-morrow." 

Of course they responded with vociferous cheers. The 
words were pithy and appropriate, but in that mood they 
would have applauded a stanza from Mother Goose. 

The retreating rebels soon re-formed their lines, and 
made vigorous resistance at every defensible point. Before 
night they were within two miles of Port Gibson, and Grant, 
knowing little of the country, stopped the pursuit. Our 
loss during the day had reached about one thousand in 
killed and founded. 

During this battle the party of visitors at head-quarters 
was jou^ed by Charles A. Dana, subsequently Assistant 
SecreMy of War, but at this time representing informally 
the ^Vav Department. lie went through the rest of the cam- 
paign, making himself useful in every possible way, and 
be/ame one of the General's most steadfast and helpful 
ojicial friends. 

The weary men sle^t on their arms ; Grant and his staff 
in an elegantly furnished house, deserted by its owners and 
left to the negro servants. With that unaccountable moral 
obtuseness and flagrant treachery to his "best friends," 
with which the African has wrung the hearts of so marry 
wise statesmen And pious divines, these ex-slaves invited 
their guests to/>artake of a capital supper and breakfast, to 
sleep on the softest of beds, and even to smoke their even- 
ing cigars ii/ the luxurious library of the planter, whose 



308 Grant Enters Port Gibson. [1863. 

liigh commission as man-owner now gave Mm only a du- 
Ibious brevet rank. 

The Gene ral had his son FrprL already thirteen, along on 
the campaign, thinking him unlikely ever to enjoy another 
opportunity so favorable for witnessing military operations. 
This morning* two large white carriage-horses, spoils of the 
Egyptians, were delivered at head-quarters. A. J. Smith 
had already supplied Grant with a spirited bay, so he turned 
these over to Dana and Fred. A friendly negro found for 
the former an old coach bridle with blinders, and an ancient 
saddle, and furnished him with a costly rug from the parlor 
floor, which he used as a saddle-cloth for weeks afterward. 

At eight o' clock the General and staff reached Port Gib- 
son, and rode down to the South Fork, which runs beside 
the town. The rebels had destroyed the bridge. 

Grant. — "This bridge must be replaced immediately, 
so that we can continue the pursuit." 

McClernand. — "I have given orders to have it rebuilt 
at once." 

Port Gibson, before the war, had two thousand inhabi- 
tants, and was the pleasantest town in the South. But now 
it contained few people except the delighted blacks, as the 
" superior race" had buried its valuables and fled. 

At the telegraph office Grant found a dispatch from 
Bowen, urging Pemberton to hurry forward re-enforce- 
ments and ammunition. A few minutes later a flag of truce 
brought a letter from Bowen to himself, asking for an 
armistice and permission to enter our lines for burying 
his dead and looking after his wounded. In reply, Gra % nt 
assured the rebel general of his distinguished consideration 
but mentioning the captured dispatch, and more than hint- 
ing that this was a pretext to gain time, respectfully 
declined. 

At noon, riding down to the bayou, he was surprised to 
find that not a blow had been struck, and indignantly 
asked the reason. McClernand, who was suffering from 
one of his frequently-recurring attacks of bad humor, replied 

* May second. 






1863.] A Bridge Built in Four Hours. 309 

that his men were too much worn out. The chief "bit his 
lip, rode silently away and told Rawlins and Wilson 
to build the bridge. They went to work with a will, em- 
ploying thousands of soldiers to assist them, sending out 
details for axes and nails, and tearing down the most con- 
venient buildings for planks and timbers. At four p. m. 
our infantry and cavalry were crossing the new bridge, 
which was one hundred and twenty feet long. 

It was a delightful moonlight night. The troops moved 
slowly, with skirmishers well out on front and flank, as 
they were ignorant of the country and the roads. 

At nine p. m. they reached the North Fork, seven miles 
out. Here the rebels had fired the suspension bridge, and 
about one-third of the planks were consumed, when the 
flames were extinguished by a negro living in the neighbor- 
hood. He now welcomed the Union soldiers, and showed 
them a pile of worn planks large enough to replace it. 

The water was only two feet deep, but ran over quick- 
sands. Infantry might cross, but not artillery ; and Grant 
expecting resistance on the north bank, declined to let the 
men go forward without support. So Wilson, Rawlins, 
and Bowen began with heavy details to repair the bridge. 

At midnight the weary chief said : — 
>£Let's go to bed." 

Dana. — "Where are you going to sleep V } 

Grant. — "I guess this is as good a place as any." 

It was an open spot in front of an old negro cabin. 
The troops were slumbering all around, and he stretched 
himself upon the damp grass. 

Dana. — " I have an overcoat here ; let me put it under 

r 



r ou." 



Grant. — "I'm too sleepy ; don't disturb me." 

The General, lying on one side, with his head upon a 

saddle, his knees drawn up, and his hands clasped between 

them, was instantly asleep ; but before daylight, McPher- 

son, having secured a tent, took him under that shelter. 

At five A. M.* the troops began to cross, and the worn 

* May third. 



310 The Requests of a Rebel Prisoner. [isg3. 

aides, wlio had worked ail night, stretched themselves out 
for a little slumber. 

Grant. — " The staff are all used uj), and I haye no one 
to take their place." 

Dana. — " I will do staff duty until they are ready to go 
to work again." 

Grant. — "That's right; that's first rate. Ride out to 
the front and tell McPherson to move cautiously, and report 
whether he sees any enemy." 

A young rebel officer, an aide of Bo wen's, was brought 
in, prisoner. He rode a beautiful horse, with a quilted 
saddle and costly trappings. He answered a few questions, 
and then manifested the assurance of his class :— 

Prisoner. — " General Grant, this horse and saddle don't 
belong to the confederate government, but are my private 
property, presented by my father. I should be glad if I 
might retain them." 

Grant. — "I have got three/df four horses, which are 
also my private property, meandering about the confeder- 
acy. I'll make an exchange with you. We'll keep yours, 
and when you find one >w mine, just take it in his place !" 

The captive, a little chap-fallen, next asked permission to 
visit his parents, who resided at Port Gibson ; but Grant, 
mindful of tWenemy' s harsh treatment to Union prisoners, 
refused it, afM sent him back to the rear with the rest. 

All day our troops pursued. At various points in ra- 
vines and woods, the rebels made feeble stands, but — as 
during the entire campaign — surprised the General by their 
lack of promptness and enterprise. At night our advance 
reached Hankinson's Ferry, on the Big Black, fifteen miles 
north of Port Gibson, and had sent several hundred prison- 
ers to the rear. 

For five days and nights Grant had not changed a gar- 
ment, or, indeed, taken off his clothing. Now, after dark, 
with a small escort, he galloped twenty miles into Grand 
Gulf, which the rebels had evaluated ; went down the river, 
conferred with Porter, returned and wrote letters and dis- 
patches to Washington until midnight, and then treated him- 
self to a borrowed shirt and a few hours of slumber. 



1863.] Gkierso^'s Daring CavalpwY Raid. 311 

On this Sunday night, two friends and myself, anxious to 
get to the front, left Young's Point upon a tug towing two 
barges of forage anc(r' provisions, which Grant had ordered to 
run the batteries. / After we had been under fire from the 
Yicksburg guns/for three-quarters of an hour, and were 
almost out of ra/ige, a shot exploded and sunk our tug and 
i fired our barg/s. Sixteen of us — out of the thirty-five on 
board — had the good fortune to be picked up in the river 
by the enem/, and one comrade and mvjelf had the ill for- 
tune, for ne^rly^-two ye ars th ereafter, to study the war and 
rejoice in (/rant' s victories from successive Southern prisons. 
After they reached the magic number of seven, we luckily 
escaped. 

On our abrupt advent into Yicksburg, the rebel officers 
cheerfully X ssure( i ns that they expected to see Grant a 
prisoner /there within a few days. We replied that they 
would .undoubtedly see him, but not exactly in the capacity 
of a Captive. 

Colonel Grierson, who had left La Grange, Tennessee, 
with seventeen hundred cavalry, after traversing the Missis- 
sippi lengthwise, destroying stores, and arms, tearing up 
railways, burning bridges, capturing militia, and carrying 
consternation through the entire State, reached our lines at 
Baton Rouge/ /ir having traveled six hundred miles in fifteen 
days, and lost less than thirty men in sick, wounded, and 
missing. Nowhere did he meet with any serious resistance, 
and his daring raid convinced Grant that the confederacy 
had become ' ' a mere shell with all its resisting power on 
the outer edge." 

The General, now at the Big Black, and facing northward, 
was between two wings of the enemy. On his left Pem- 
berton held Yicksburg and vicinity with fifty thousand 
men. On the right rebel re-enforcements were approaching 
in unknown numbers. To annihilate this force before it 
could join Pemberton, and still be able to cope with the 
latter, would require rapid marching and more men than he 
had, if he should attempt to keep open communication with 
Grand Gulf, his present depot of supplies. 

* May second. 



312 The Battle of Raymond. [1863. 

Bearing in mind Scott's brilliant campaign from Puebla 
to Mexico, sixteen years before— a campaign which taught 
him the most valuable lessons he ever learned in the art of 
war, except those from his own experience— he determined 
to abandon his base, and taking as many rations as his men 
could conveniently carry, destroy the approaching re-en- 
forcements, and then turn to invest Vicksburg. 

Nothing but good combinations and rapid movements 
could insure success to this daring plan. He cut loose 
altogether, writing to the general-in-chief : — * 

" I shall communicate with Grand Gulf no more, except as it becomes 
necessary to send a train under heavy escort. You may not hear from me 
for several days." 

The course of the Big Black is southwest. From Han- 
kinson' s Ferry, twenty miles due south of Vicksburg, Grant 
marched up on the east side of the river, which, running be- 
tween him and Pemberton, protected his left flank. He 
made perplexing feints in all directions, which it was impos- 
sible for his weak adversary to distinguish from the real 
movement. His first object was to stop supplies from pour- 
ing into Vicksburg, by cutting the railway which runs west 
from Jackson, the capital of the State. 

Early in the morning, f McPherson, who held the extreme 
right, approaching the little town of Raymond, encountered 
live thousand rebels under Gregg, very strongly posted. 
The Union force was much the larger, but not until after 
three hours of stubborn fighting was the enemy driven 
back with a loss of three hundred killed and wounded, and 
many prisoners. 

Grant, concentrating his main force to meet Pemberton' s 
army at Edwards Depot and Bolton north of him, had 
designed sending only a little expedition eastward into Jack- 
son to destroy confederate stores. But now Rawlins and 
Wilson rode back to inform him that the enemy on McPher- 
son' s front had retreated, not upon Vicksburg, but toward 
Jackson. He instantly surmised that re-enforcements 
enough to swell Gregg's command to twelve or fourteen 

* May eleventh. t Ma y twelfth. 



1863.] Grant Cuts Loose from His Base. 313 

thousand must Ibe concentrating in that direction. Even if 
he should whip Pemberton it would never do to turn toward 
Vicksburg, leaving this his enemy in the rear. 

Simply asking one or two questions, and without rising 
from his chair, he wrote orders to turn the entire army 
toAvard Jackson. This readiness to modify an old plan, or 
substitute a new one on the instant when emergencies re- 
quired it, was one of his strongest and most characteristic 
points. On cutting loose from Grand Gulf, he said : — 

" I think we can reduce Jackson, and re-open communi- 
cations with the fleet above Vicksburg in about five days." 

It was like Cortez burning his ships. Grant sent out 
expeditions on every side for food and forage, and ordering 
no more supplies sent to his rear, turned back his extra 
wagons, and left his field hospitals at Port Gibson and Ray- 
mond in charge of Federal surgeons with flags of truce. 

He found in the country enough of provisions and forage, 
abundance of horse and mule teams, and no end of negroes 
delighted to drive them; and thenceforth multitudes of 
cattle, sheep, turkeys, chickens, and pigs, indiscriminately 
mingled, followed in the wake of his army. 

McPherson struck the railroad at Clinton, tore up the 
track, burned bridges, and captured dispatches showing 
that Pemberton was still at Edwards Station, eighteen miles 
east of Vicksburg, expecting an attack. 

Sherman, after making a feint at Haine' s Bluff to deceive 
Pemberton, and then moving rapidly along the circuitous 
land and river route upon which the rest of the army pre- 
ceded him, had now arrived with his fine corps eager for 
work. He and McPherson were ordered to reduce Jackson. 

On the morning of May fourteenth both were marching 
upon the town, McPherson along the railway from Clinton, 
ten miles west, and Sherman across the country from a 
point fourteen miles southwest. They expected to arrive 
at the same moment, but Sherman's roads were so muddy 
that it was almost impossible to move artillery. His 
men, however, throwing away their boots and shoes, and 
floundering through the mud up to their knees, shouted, 
laughed, and sang, in the most exuberant spirits. 



314 The Battle of Jackson. [1863. 

An hour before noon, in the midst of a driving rain, 
they approached the city from the south, and were stopped 
"by a battery of six pounders in a strip of woods, two miles 
out. Ai'tillery skirmishing followed. Among the troops 
lying in a held a shell exploded now and then, and with 
natural scruples about keeping quiet to be murdered many 
jumped up and ran to the rear. Grant and staff, sitting 
twenty paces behind them, under some spreading trees for 
protection from the rain, persuaded them to return, until the 
storm of water grew so much more uncomfortable than the 
storm of shot, that they sought shelter in some old shanties 
a hundred yards away. 

What virtue in a general is equal to promptness ? What 
general ever had it in a higher degree than Grant % Only the 
night before, Joseph E. Johnston, a most able rebel com- 
mander, had arrived on his front. Very soon Johnston 
would have concentrated the scattered confederates, and 
struck Grant on the flank before uniting with Pemberton, 
for whom he was amply competent to furnish brains. 
But our General falling upon him so unexpectedly quite 
spoiled his game. McPherson, after three hours' fighting on 
the west side, had already driven in the enemy, and Sher- 
man soon swept forward. The rebel cannoneers stood their 
ground until his infantry were within six feet of them. 
Then they flung down their rammers and surrendered, both 
they and their captors, including Grant, laughing heartily 
at their dare-devil tenacity. Soldiers soon get on familiar 
terms with death, and the tragedy of war has frequent 
interludes of comedy. 

Though squads of rebel cavalry were still in sight, and 
though the staff expostulated, the chief, remarking that he 
guessed there was no danger, galloped forward into the 
city. Fred rode with the party, and entered Jackson at 
the head of it. The streets were full of gleeful negroes, 
while from windows and half-open doors peered some anx- 
ious, pallid faces. But snowy flags flew from the houses, 
and many white families seemed overjoyed, for there was a 
good deal of Union sentiment. 

Grant and staff rode to the leading hotel — a large build- 



1863.] GRANT IN THE CAPITAL OF MISSISSIPPI. 315 

ing, near the capitol, where Johnston had slept the night 
Ibefore. They fancied themselves the first Yankees in Jack- 
son, but private enterprise had outrun official routine, and 
the muskets were ahead of the shoulder-straps. Three of 
McPherson's cavalrymen were already raising the Stars and 
Stripes upon the State-House. The people flocked about 
the light-bearded, mud- stained General — who bore no mark 
of his rank — with all sorts of petitions, in response to one 
of which he instantly stationed guards to protect the inmates 
of the large Catholic convent. 

The public stores had been left open, and the ransomed 
black sinners, confident that their year of jubilee had come, 
were making a haul of clothing and provisions. One, stag- 
gering under an enormous burden of garments, was accosted 
by a staff officer : — 

"Hallo, uncle; haven't you got more than your share 
of coats?" 

"Dunno, mass'r ; if you likes one, take it." 
The next morning details were sent out to destroy all 
railways, machine shops, manufactories, and public stores. 
A large cotton factory was reported filled with duck. The 
owner piteously begged the General to spare it. 
Grant.— "Whom are you making duck for?" 
The proprietor answered, in evident embarrassment, that 
his customers were many. 

Grant.— " Wilson, did you see any mark on that duck?" 
Wilson.— "Yes; it bears the stamp <C. S. A.' " 
Grant.—" Then, sir, I guess your factory must be 
burned with the rest." 

Many alarmed citizens begged the General not to destroy 
the town. He replied, that while every thing belonging to 
the confederacy and all stores which could help it must be 
burned, he would do all in his power to protect private 
property. But he could not save it altogether. Our troops, 
for once, deserved the favorite epithet of the rebels, "North- 
ern Vandals," for they pillaged houses and fired a hotel and a 
church. It has been urged in extenuation, that several had 
previously suffered gross indignities while prisoners in 
Jackson. 



316 



Why the Rebels Burned a Hotel. 



[1863. 



"What's our bill?" a sked Dana, as the chief and his 
party were leaving. 

"Ninety dollars," replied the landlord. 

A hundred-dollar confederate note being proffered, Boni- 
face said, hesitatingly : — 

" I didn't know yon were going to pay in that money, 
or I should have charged more." 

' ' Very well ; charge whatever you like. We do pro- 
pose to pay in this money." 

Confederate curreiuw^ was cheap, for our forces had cap- 
tured a large quantifa^at Btfpt Gibson. The bill was settled 
for two hundred confederate dollars. When the rebels re- 
entered the town they actually burned the hotel because its 
lessee had refused to take the Southern currency from 
Grant' s party at the same rate as greenbacks ! They were 
as wise as^ome other political economists of more expe- 
rience and liigher pretensions ! 






1863.] Grant Intercepts a Rebel Dispatch. 317 



CHAPTER XXVI. 



THE GAME AT BAY. 



Months before, Hurlbut, with great ado and show of 
disgrace, had drummed a man out of Memphis on the alle- 
gation that he was a rebel. Actually he was a Union spy, 
and this expulsion secured him the confidence of leading 
confederates. Now he brought to Grant a dispatch which 
Johnston had intrusted to him, instructing Pemberton to 
attack Sherman, who was at Clinton.* 

From the feeble Pemberton there was not much to fear, 
but Johnston had retreated northward, and Grant was 
anxious lest he might form a junction with Pemberton, or 
the latter might escape. N ot Vicksburg, but the main rebel 
army, was now the prize he sought. 

Neither Johnston nor Pemberton suspected that the 
General had cut loose from his base, and Pemberton was 
making a fruitless attempt to sever his communications! 
Though repeatedly ordered by Johnston to evacuate Vicks- 
burg lest he should be shut up in it, Pemberton had as 
often disobeyed. At last, when it was too late, he saw his 
danger, and determined to get north of the railroad and 
escape. But two of his men deserted to oar lines with the 
information, whereupon Grant sent emphatic orders to his 
corps commanders to concentrate instantly on the rebel 
front. 

From all quarters our hard-worked men, now thor- 
oughly enthusiastic, came marching forward with ringing 
cheers. About three in the morning, fas Pemberton was be- 
ginning to move, our advance encountered him at Champion 
Hill, on the railway, half way between Jackson and Vicks- 
burg. The rebel general, utterly unsuspicious that Grant's 

* Map, page 280. f May sixteenth. 



318 The Battle of Champion Hill. [is63. 

army was in the neighborhood, thought he had encountered 
only a small detachment. His position, on a ridge several 
hundred feet high, gashed with ravines and covered with 
dense undergrowth, was exceedingly strong. 

Through the morning there was hot skirmishing. Grant, 
with his staff and son, was under fire, though a little pro- 
tected by a hill. On its farther side, Hovey, commanding 
our advance, was driven back across a ravine and up 
toward the crest. An ubiquitous correspondent witnessing 
this, rode back to get out of a hot place and to inform Grant. 
On the way he passed a detachment of Union soldiers with 
two guns, which they had just captured, pouring shells into 
the enemy, while a few hundred yards away, the rebels 
were replying with the four remaining pieces of the battery. 
The General was told that Hovey was repulsed. 

Grant. — " I guess not." 

Journalist. — "He is — pouring back pell-mell." 

Grant. — " Did you see it ?" 

Journalist. — u Yes." 

Grant (to McPherson, who had just come up). — "Cad- 
wallader reports that Hovey is being driven back." 

McPherson. — "Yes, I understand so." 

Grant (speaking with great quickness and precision). — 
"Then I think I would move Quinby right up. Form a 
line here. Just put a battery in there and another over 
there." 

These dispositions were completed just as Hovey' s 
stampeding men poured over the crest. The two batteries 
opened on the pursuing rebels, staggered them, and shortly 
drove them back, our men yelling and chasing in turn, 
over heaps of dead and wounded. 

Grant had delayed the battle as long as possible, that 
McClernand might come up. While it raged he was con- 
stantly sending messages to that commander — a few miles 
southward, and detained by a small rebel force — to press 
forward at all hazards. The General directed operations on 
the front, through hours of fierce fighting, hardly equaled 
during the war, except at Shiloh and Spottsylvania. Hovey, 
Logan, and Crocker took the brunt of it. The ground was 



1863] Grant Reaches the Big Black. 319 

so covered with torn and blackened corpses that onr soldiers 
called it the "Hill of Death." 

At four p. m. Logan' s division, "by a skillful movement 
on our right, got almost in the rear of the weary confeder- 
ates, causing an alarm which, increased by a vigorous charge 
in front, sent them flying westward — toward the railway- 
crossing of the Big Black, ten miles out of Yicksburg, — for 
it was impossible for them to move north. 

Out of fifteen thousand men engaged, the Union army 
had twenty-three hundred killed and wounded, but only 
two hundred missing. The rebels lost as many from 
wounds, beside three thousand prisoners and many field- 
pieces. General Lloyd Tilghman, whom Grant had cap- 
tured at Fort Henry two years before, was among their 
killed. 

Just after the last gun was fired, McClernand's corps 
reached the field. Its delay was owing solely to its com- 
mander, for only a handful of men had been lost. 

Loring, a one-armed rebel general, imitating the insubor- 
dination of his chief,, disobeyed Pemberton's order to fall 
back toward Yicksburg. He led his division southward, 
around our forces, and after ten days of hard and costly 
marching, succeeded in reaching Johnston' s army. 

Grant, leaving a detail to bury his dead, followed the 
shattered enemy in close chase, securing twelve heavy guns, 
many small-arms, and hundreds of stragglers, who surren- 
dered themselves voluntarily. 

After dark the enemy halted at the Big Black, and head- 
quarters were established at a farm-house, half a mile in the 
rear. It was still occupied by wounded rebels, one of whom 
walked raving about with his brains protruding through a 
bullet-hole. 

Grant had carried out his hazardous plan of cutting loose 
from his base of supplies without consulting the Washing- 
ton authorities. Confident that they would not approve it, 
he had not telegraphed the general-in-chief until just before 
starting. Cairo was the nearest station, so he could not 
receive a countermanding order under ten days. To-night 
came a dispatch from Halleck, written on learning of his 



320 Lawler makes a Brilliant Charge. t 186 s. 

plan, and counseling him to effect a junction with Banks be- 
fore moving on Vicksburg. He read it with a smile, doubt- 
less wondering what the military theorist would think on 
learning of this bit of military practice by a once despised 
subordinate. 

The General and staff slept on their blankets, under the 
porch, as well as the groans of the sufferers within would 
permit. 

Sunday morning* found the rebel army west of the 
river. But two brigades were left upon a sort of island, 
on the east side, to protect the bridge-head for Loring's 
division, which was still expected. Between our front and 
this island ran a broad muddy bayou full of reeds, and 
seemingly impassable. Just beyond were the well-manned 
rifle-pits of the enemy. 

Our line here was held by the brigade of "Mike Law- 
ler," an impetuous Illinois brigadier. Months earlier at 
Cairo, Lawler had summarily court-martialed and hanged 
one of his men for an outrage upon a woman. The punish- 
ment was utterly beyond his authority, but the victim being 
undoubtedly guilty, Grant let off his subordinate with a 
sharp reprimand. Lawler, full of energy and pluck, had 
exceeded his authority on two or three later occasions, and 
was still in disfavor. But now his zeal proved opportune. 
Glancing over the cotton field and the reedy bayou at the 
rebel work, he said : — 

"Boys, here's a chance to go in." 

Starting at the word they charged yelling across the 
cleared land, and through the water up to the arm-pits, 
pushing away obstructions, and many losing their muskets. 
Unchecked by the brief shower of bullets they reached the 
opposite shore, went down into the trenches, then over the 
breastworks, and the camp was theirs ! Had not the enemy 
been utterly demoralized he would have eaten them up, but 
they lost only two hundred and fifty men. 

The flying confederates crowded upon the bridge, until 
their comrades on the other side, panic-stricken lest our men 

* May seventeenth. 



1863.] The Game Entering the Tkap. 321 

should pursue, set it ou lire. Many jumping into the water 
were drowned, and the rest instantly surrendered. 

Lawler had captured almost eighteen hundred men — a 
force larger than his own — with their equipage and artil- 
lery. The moment Grant heard of the most gallant exploit 
he rode forward with his staff. The day was excessively 
hot, and Lawler, who weighed three hundred pounds was 
stooping in a fence corner beside his orderly and cook, with 
his coat and waistcoat off, and his shirt thrown open at the 
neck, trying to build a fire to boil his pot of coffee. His 
wounded were just passing back on stretchers and blankets. 
The General, thanking him in the most emphatic terms, went 
all over the ground asking many questions ; and from that 
hour looked upon Lawler with warm and unvarying favor. 

After dark three bridges were built, one of cotton bales 
tied together, one of timbers and planks, and a third of 
Sherman's pontoons. The army was ordered to cross at 
daylight in the teeth of the enemy. 

But the enemy's teeth were drawn. On that Sunday 
night, Pemberton's shattered command poured back into 
the strong defenses of Vicksburg. The game was entering 
the trap ! 

On Monday, Grant pushed forward. During the cam- 
paign thus far Sherman had expressed his incredulity 
freely, though co-operating with the utmost zeal. Many 
another general would have talked less without working- 
half so well. Now from an elevation above Vicksburg, in 
full view of the scene of his own failure, four months 
earlier, he said abruptly to his chief : — 

" Until this moment I never thought that your expedition 
would be a success ; I never could see the end clearly ; but 
this is a campaign, — this is a success if we never take the 
town."* 

The party had just passed a rude cabin, when a woman 
came out swinging her tattered bonnet. 

" Go back and see what she wants," said the General. 

" She and her husband," reported the returning aide, 

* Badeau. 
W 



322 Vicksburg Invested. [i8G3. 

" came here from Cairo, just before the war. He was im- 
pressed into the rebel service, but his health breaking 
clown, he has been confined to the house for more than a 
year, and is very poor. They are Union people, and she 
only wanted to welcome our army, and get a look at 
you." 

After cross questioning her a little Grant rode on for five 
minutes, when he suddenly directed : — 

' ' Captain, leave a guard at that house to protect those 
poor people." 

The order was obeyed. 

Going a little farther in silence, he again said, abruptly, 
as if a fresh thought had struck him : — 

" Send back a surgeon to that sick man, with instruc- 
tions to report his condition to me." 

This, also, was done. The cavalcade went on a few min- 
utes longer, when the General gave a third order : — 

"Have the commissary leave a few rations, that the 
woman and her husband need not suffer." 

The family was protected and fed. In due time the inva- 
lid was cured, and Grant furnished them with free trans- 
portation to the North. 

That night* our investing lines in the rear of Vicksburg 
were formed, in a half circle, from the river above almost to 
the river below, Sherman holding the right, McPherson the 
center, and McClernand the left. Haine's Bluff was already 
evacuated, and our gun-boats and transports from Young's 
Point steamed up the Yazoo. Before midnight, wagon loads 
of provision and forage reached Grant' s hungry army. His 
anticipations had been fulfilled to the letter. This was the 
fifth night. 

After riding the lines until midnight, he and the staff 
slept at a house where the negroes in possession supped 
them upon the only turkey which the desolation of war had 
spared. There was no salt, bread, nor vegetables, but 
the party ate eagerly, for they had fasted since daylight, 
It was nearly dawn when they went to bed with light 
hearts. 

* May eighteenth. 



1863.] Two Unsuccessful Assaults. 323 

Grant's operations since leaving New Carthage, had 
rarely been equaled by the most illustrious captains of his- 
tory. In twenty days lie had marched two hundred miles, 
and fought five battles, taking ninety guns, capturing six 
thousand of the enemy, and killing and wounding many 
more. He had destroyed Pemberton's communications, 
stopped him from escaping, and finally driven him to the 
wall. And his total loss in killed, wounded, and missing, 
footed up only four thousand. 

In three or four days the investment was complete. Our 
semicircular line, inclosing the city and defenses — about four 
hundred yards from that of the rebels — was eight miles long. 
In the enormous ravines protecting Vicksburg in the rear, 
our troops found shelter, but the moment they ventured 
forward on a crest, vigilant sharp-shooters picked them off. 

Grant established his head-quarters just out of range, on 
Sherman' s left. His two favorite lieutenants, both near by, 
spent much time with their chief. McPherson — tall and 
slender, with dark hair, beard, and eyes, but a very fair 
complexion — lounged every day at head-quarters, where he 
was a universal favorite. 

Supposing the rebel force much smaller than it really 
was, the chief ordered a general assault, * and at two p. m. , 
three artillery volleys being fired as a signal, our troops, all 
along the line, streamed over the crests, and succeeded in 
capturing two or three outworks and some prisoners. But 
they were repelled, with a loss of Hve hundred. 

The men, however, were confident that they could 
carry the place by storm, and Grant feared that Johnston 
might collect a force large enough to attack him in the rear. 
So, after his siege-pieces and Porter' s gun-boats and mortars 
from the river had dropped shells into the town through an 
entire night, the troops made another more vigorous as- 
sault, f Starting at ten A. m., they swept gallantly over 
fallen timbers and gullied hills, until checked by a deadly 
fire of musketry and artillery. The day saw desperate 
hand-to-hand fighting and many deeds of valor. Field- 

* May nineteenth. f May twenty-second. 



324 A Truce for Burying the Dead. [1863. 

pieces were dragged by the men themselves to points 
where horses could not live for a moment, and ammunition 
was carried forward in haversacks. Griffith, an Iowa ser- 
geant of nineteen, getting into an outwork- of the enemy 
after all his comrades had been shot down, found a rebel 
lieutenant and fifteen soldiers exposed to the fire from both 
sides. He shouted : — 

" This place is too hot for any man to stay in. Come 
with me." 

The whole sixteen obeyed ; but he brought in only 
twelve, the rest being killed by the enemy's shots while 
climbing over the parapet. Griffith was made a lieutenant, 
and afterward appointed a cadet at West Point. 

McClernand, reporting in several dispatches that he had 
carried portions of two forts, begged for re-enforcements, 
and for a vigorous assault along the entire line, to weaken 
the resistance on his front. Grant finally sent him troops, 
and ordered the assault, but it was bloodily repulsed. 
McClernand' s enthusiasm was caused by the fact that 
twenty or thirty of his men had got into a ditch and planted 
their colors on the outer face of the parapet. They were 
unable to retreat until after dark, and then left two or three 
flags. At night, when the battle ended, our army had lost 
three thousand men. 

After desultory fighting for two days longer, the air 
grew so foul from the wounded and corpses, that Pemberton 
granted the General an armistice for two hours and a half, to 
bring away his dead and the few living who were yet un- 
cared for. Simultaneously the rebels removed the putrefy- 
ing horses, which greatly affected their health and comfort. 
During this truce both armies fraternized, perhaps softened 
by the peaceful sleep of friend and foe side by side on that 
bloody field. Beardless boys lay among the confederate 
dead, and a rebel and a Union man, lying stark, were 
found grasping a rifle which they had been contending for 
when one shot killed them both. 

The spade now took the place of the musket. Slowly 
our lines contracted as the soldiers dug forward. Sharp- 
shooting grew deadly on both sides. No artillerists loaded 



1863.] The Opposing Pickets Converse. 325 



their pieces so quick, but that the bullets would "ping, 
ping," about their ears before they could spring back 
to their bomb-proofs. The ditches were so near that con- 
versations between the pickets were familiar, and sometimes 
witty. This is an authentic example : — 

Rebel Picket. — "What are you uns doing out there 3" 
Union Picket. — " Guarding thirty thousand of you 
prisoners, and making you board yourselves I" 

Rebel. — "Why don't you come and take Yicksburg?" 
Union. — "Oh, we're in no hurry! Grant hasn't got, 
transportation yet to send you up North." 

Rebel. — "We have a lot of your d d old flags in 

here." 

Union. — " Make shirts of them ; they'll look better than 
that butternut !" 

Rebel. — "Will you trade some coffee for corn meal?" 
Union. — " Yes, just to oblige you ; fling it over here." 
Though Pemberton was heart and soul with the rebels, 
they ungenerously questioned his fidelity because of his 
Northern birth. According to their newspapers, he replied, 
in a fire-eating speech, to his men : — 

"You have heard that I was incompetent and a traitor, 
and that it was my intention to sell Yicksburg. When the 
last pound of beef, bacon, and flour ; the last grain of corn ; 
the last cow, and hog, and horse, and dog shall have been 
consumed, and the last man shall have perished in the 
trenches, then, and only then, will I sell Yicksburg !" 

MeClernand had some good and soldierly qualities ; but 
his insubordination at last culminated in innuendo s against 
the ability of his chief, circulated in a congratulatory order 
to his corps. Grant promptly removed him,* and appointed 
the faithful Ord in his stead. 

Famine proved a powerful coadjutor of the Union army. 
The soldiers and citizens of Yicksburg were on less than 
half rations. Flour commanded a thousand dollars per 
barrel, and meat two hundred and fifty dollars per pound, 
in rebel currency. Fatal dysentery and fevers, caused by 

* June eighteenth. 



326 "A Good Moral Drink." [ises. 

hunger and fatigue, sharpened the horrors of the besieged 
city. Women and children in their houses, and soldiers in 
the hospitals, were killed by our shells; and the hapless 
citizens, bond and free, called on the rocks to fall upon 
them and the mountains to cover them. Caves dug in the 
bluffs, through which the streets are cut, afforded the best 
shelter ; but even these were sometimes penetrated ; and in 
one a babe, sleeping peacefully by its mother, was torn to 
fragments. 

(On the Union side, during long summer evenings, the 
chief chatted of every thing, though great military opera- 
tions were his favorite theme. He never wearied of ex- 
plaining where he ought to have done better, where For- 
tune had happily served him, and where, affronted by mis- 
takes of his own or of others, the fickle goddess had baffled 
him. 

With his usual flow of spirits he always had his jest, 
continually bantering some one of the staff, and taking his 
pay in the same coin with invariable good-humor. But 
his familiarity never bred contempt. !N"o one presumed on 
him. The abrupt Sherman and the more stately and formal 
Thomas called him "Grant," but no other subordinate ever 
add^ssed him except by his title. 

/die plantation of the rebel president, near New Carthage, 
fell into our hands, and a bl^ck pony brought from it was 
presented to Grant. " Jeff. Davis," as he named the steed, 
'soon showed extraordinary speed and endurance. The 
y General rode him through the rest of the war, and still keeps 
/ the favorite horse. 
/ Oar troops suffered from diarrhea and dysentery, caused 
I by the unwholesome lime-water springs of the hills. Some 
I of the head-quarters officers were sick nearly all the time. 
I An old negro to the manner born, who sold them black- 
berries, one day brought a quantity of roots and herbs, 
which he offered as specifics. One known as jLittany he 
recommended enthusiastically : — 

"Dis makes a good moral drink. It always cures de 
. misery in de bowels !" 

The plant, largely used for tea through portions of the 



1863.] Mine Explosion under Fort Hill. 327 

South, proved a welcome medicinal agent, if not an infallible 
panacea. 

Grant, though exceedingly active, and riding the lines 
daily, displayed his extraordinary faculty of delegating 
labor. He was never hurried or " fussy, 1 ' and gave few 
directions ; but he knew his men, and the work was always 
done. 

Ditching being the order of the day, he employed every 
West Pointer in his army below the rank of general on 
engineering duty. One made an ingenious and exceedingly 
safe reconnoissance of the interior of a rebel work, by eleva- 
ting a mirror upon a pole, and inclining the top forward. 

One day our men, preparing the ground for a new bat- 
tery in front of Logan's division, were sorely harassed by 
sharp-shooters. They dodged at every discharge, and 
seemed inclined to run. Grant, therefore, sat down upon a 
pile of rails coolly giving orders, and whittling a stick for ten 
minutes, while bullets whistled about his ears. His ex- 
ample restored courage, and the work was completed. 

Having now two hundred heavy guns in position, and 
twelve miles of trenches dug, he prepared a mine under 
Fort Hill, an important rebel work. In subterranean gal- 
leries as large as a railway car, fifteen hundred pounds of 
powder — in kegs with the heads knocked out and with loose 
powder scattered about them — was deposited, and the earth 
strengthened by timbers, and sand-bags firmly rammed in. 

Under a tremendous artillery fire the fuse was lighted. 
As usual only a small portion of the powder burned, and 
the slight noise of the explosion was not heard half a mile 
away. First a boundless mass of snow-white smoke puffed 
up. Yast clouds of brown smoke mingled with dust, and 
rapidly turning to jet black, followed, spreading in all 
directions like spray from a Titanic fountain. The whole 
heavens were darkened with enormous rocks and timbers,' 
which began to drop in both lines with ruthless disregard 
for the safety of the individual. 

A part of the fort was blown up, but the debris falling 
around the crater, made entering difficult. The rebels, 
though recoiling in terror for a moment, were again in posi- 

\ 



328 "The Lord and Joe Johnston." [ 18 g3. 

tion three minutes later, as our troops swarmed in through 
the gap which was twenty feet wide. Then followed close 
fighting with bayonets, clubbed muskets, and stones. The 
enemy dragged up a six-pounder, and fired right into the 
assailants, but our soldiers instead of retiring shoveled up a 
little breastwork. 

Hand-grenades were thrown over on both sides as long 
as they lasted. Then the men cut off and lighted the fuses 
of bomb-shells, and at the right moment pitched them, with 
their hands, among the rebels. Frequently a Union soldier 
threw one of those ugly missiles a few seconds too soon ; 
then the confederates flung it back, and it would pass to 
and fro several times before exploding. Many were torn to 
atoms. Greek had met Greek. Our soldiers remained 
through the night and part of the next day, but then fell 
back. They named the crater the "Death Hole." Six 
mines were sprung afterward during the siege, but without 
important results. 

The days dragged on. A rebel woman tauntingly asked 
Grant : — 

' c When do you expect to get Yicksburg V ' 

" I can't tell exactly," he replied, "but I shall stay until 
I do, if it takes thirty years." 

Captured dispatches between Pemberton and Johnston, 
showed that the latter was hoping to get up in our rear. 
But though the General had received many re-enforcements, 
he would not detach a man while the stronghold continued 
to defy him. A rebel inside wrote in a letter to his wife 
which our officers intercepted: — "We put our trust in the 
Lord. * * * We expect Joe Johnston to come to onr 
relief." 

Grant, ordering Sherman to be ready to march the mo- 
ment the siege should end, observed : — 

"They seem to put a good deal of faith in the Lord and 
I Joe Johnston, but you must whip Johnston at least fifteen 
Vniles from here." 



18G3.] Pemberton Proposes to Capitulate. 329 



CHAPTER XXII. 



10 TEITTMPHE ! 

July came. The army was growing weary. Our lines 
were close up to those of the enemy, but Ave had made no 
perceptible impression upon his main works. Johnston's 
force, already twenty-five thousand strong, might attack 
soon, so Grant determined to make another vigorous assault 
on Independence Day. 

Pemberton rendered it unnecessary. On the morning of 
the third a white flag appeared on the confederate works. 
Firing ceased at that point, and the rebel General Bowen 
advanced to the national lines. He was blindfolded and 
brought to A. J. Smith. He requested an interview with 
Grant, but, this being denied, delivered the following : — 

" Head-quarters, Yicksburg, July 3, 1S63. 

''Major-General Grant, commanding United States forces: — 

" General — I have the honor to propose to you an armistice of — 
hours, with a view to arranging terms for the capitulation of Vicksburg. To 
this end, if agreeable to you, I will appoint three commissioners,, to meet a 
like number to be named by yourself, at such place and hour as you may 
find convenient. I make this proposition to save the further effusion of 
blood, which must otherwise be shed to a frightful extent, feeling myself 
fully able to maintain my position for a yet indefinite period. This, commu- 
nication will be handed you, under a flag of truce, by Major-General John S. 
Bowen. 

" Very respectfully, your obedient servant, 

"J. C. Pemrerton." 

The General expressed orally his willingness to meet 
Pemberton between the lines, and responded in writing : — 

"Head-quarters, Department of Tennessee, / 

In the Field, near Vicksburg, July 3, 1S63. ) 

"Lieutenant-General J. C. Pemberton, commanding confederate forces, &c. : 
" General — Your note of this date, is just received, proposing an armis- 
tice for several hours, for the purpose of arranging terms of capitulation 
through commissioners to be appointed, &c. The useless effusion of blood 



330 Grant Meets Him between the Lines. [1863. 

you propose stopping by this course, can be ended at any time you may 
choose, by the unconditionalsurrender of the city and garrison. Men who 
have shown so much endurance and courage as those now in Vicksburg, will 
always challenge the respect of an adversary, and, I can assure you, will be 
treated with all the respect due prisoners of war. I do not favor the prop- 
\ osition of appointing commissioners to arrange the terms of capitulation, be- 
cause I have no terms other than those indicated above. 
I "I am, general, very respectfully, your obedient servant, 

• \ "U. S. Gkant, Major-General. " 

At three P. M., while eager-faced soldiers peered over 
the parapets on both sides, Grant, Rawlins, Logan, McPher- 
son, Ord, and A. J. Smith, rode forward from our trenches, 
dismounted, and sat down upon the greensward under a 
live oak. In ten minutes the rebel commander appeared, 
accompanied by Bowen and a staff officer. Grant, who 
had known Pemberton in Mexico, and Bowen in St. Louis, 
shook hands with both, and Bowen introduced the other 
Union officers to his chief. 

The latter, tall, well built, with swarthy face rather sin- 
ister in expression, black hair and eyes, and close-cut chin 
whiskers, was carefully dressed in dark-blue pantaloons and 
gray military coat. He began a little haughtily : — 

Pemberton. — " I have come to see if we can arrange terms 
for the capitulation of Vicksburg. What do you demand V ' 

Grant. — " All the terms I have are stated in my letter 
of this morning." 

Pemiserton (drawing himself up stiffly). — "If that is so, 
the conference may terminate and hostilities be resumed." 

Grant. — "Very well. My army was never in better 
condition to prosecute the siege." 

The subordinates on both sides — all tired of fighting, 
since the result was a foregone conclusion — were disturbed 
at this, and Bowen urged a further conference. 

Grant. — " Suppose we do talk the matter over?" 

He and the confederate chief sat down aside from the 
rest, Grant serenely smoking, and Pemberton nervously 
pulling up and scattering blades of grass. After they had 
conversed a few minutes, Grant called up McPherson and 
A. J. Smith, while Pemberton summoned Bowen, and the 
three likewise went aside to confer. 



1863 -] Result of the Intekview. 331 

Pemberton, urging that the place and armament ought to 
satisfy the Union commander, asked that his men might be 
allowed to march out with their arms and accouterments. 
Grant refused, but finally, Bowen, McPherson, and Smith 
joining in the discussion, the conditions were settled. After 
the five rejoined the rest under the tree, there was some 
further general conversation, and then a little colloquy :- 

Gkaot. — "I'll go home and write out the terms agreed 
upon. General, you can have rations for your men if you 
desire them." 

Pemberton-.-— "Oh, no, we will use our own ; we have 
plenty." 

This was a bit of boasting. The rebels had barely the 
scantiest supplies for three days. 

During the interview both armies had been quiet, but 
I the gun-boats now opened in one of the fiercest bombard- 
ments of the siege. 

Grant.—' ' This is a mistake. I will send to Admiral 
Porter, and have the firing stopped." 

Pemberton.— " Never mind, let it go on. It won't hurt 
anybody ; the gun-boats never hurt anybody !" 

If the confederate leader meant this in jest, it was good, 
but if in braggadocia the scenes witnessed after our troops 
entered the city proved it a sorry attempt. 

The two commanders returned to their respective lines. 
Grant conferred with most of his corps and division gen- 
eral;:-. All except Steele thought his proposed terms quite 
too lenient, but he sent them forward :— 

' Head-Quarters Department of Tennessee, i 
Near Vicksburg, July 3, 1S63. j 

" Lieutenant-General J. C. Pembertox, 

Commanding confederate forces, Vicksburg, Miss. : — 
"General— In conformity with agreement of this afternoon, I will sub- 
mit the following proposition for the surrender of the city of Vicksburg, 
public stores, etc. On your accepting the terms proposed, I will march in 
■ one division as a guard, and take possession at eight a. m. to-morrow. As 
; soon as rolls can be made out and paroles signed by officers and men, you will 
; be allowed to march out of our lines, the officers taking with them their side- 
j .inns and clothing, and the field, staff, and cavalry officers one horse each. 
The rank and file will be allowed all their clothing, but no other property. 



332 Grant's Instructions to his Pickets. [isdl 

" If these conditions are accepted, any amount of rations you may deem 
necessary can be taken from the stores you now have, and also the necessary 
cooking utensils for preparing them. Thirty wagons also, counting two two- 
horse or mule teams as one, will he allowed to transport such articles as can 
not be carried along. The same conditions will be allowed to all sick and 
wounded officers and soldiers, as fast as they become able to travel. The 
paroles for these latter must be signed, however, Avhilst officers are present, 
authorized to sign the roll of prisoners. 

" I am, general, very respectfully, 

"Your obedient servant, 

" U. S. Grant, Major-General." 

With characteristic promptness, Grant now directed 
Sherman to march upon Johnston and destroy him, the 
moment the surrender should be consummated. And, de- 
termined to render it impossible for Pemberton to decline 
his terms, he instructed corps commanders to put intelli- 
gent and discreet men on picket with instructions to assure 
the rebels on their front, that in case of capitulation officers 
and men would be paroled, and allowed to return to their 
homes. Of course this news spread like wild-fire through 
the confederate ranks. But the precaution was not needed. 
During the night came Pemberton' s response : — 

" Head-Quarters, Yioksburg, July 3, 1S63. 

"Major-General Grant, 

" Commanding United States forces : — 
" General — I have the honor to acknowledge the receipt of your com- 
munication of this date, proposing terms of capitulation for this garrison 
and post. In the main, your terms are accepted ; but in justice both to the 
honor and spirit of my troops, manifested in the defense of Yicksburg, I 
have to submit the following amendments, which, if acceded to by you, will 
perfect the agreement between us. At ten o'clock, a. m., to-morrow I pro- 
pose to evacuate the works in and around Vicksburg, and to surrender the 
city and garrison under my command by marching out with my colors and 
arms, stacking them in front of my present lines, after which you will take 
possession ; officers to retain their side-arms and personal property, and the 
rights and property of citizens to be respected. 

"I am, general, yours, very respectfully, 

"J. C. Pemberton, Lieutenant-General." 

Grant replied soon after sunrise : — 

" Head-Quarters, Department of Tennessee, \ 
Before Vicksburg, July 4, 1S63. ' 

" Lieutenant-General Pemberton, commanding forces in Vicksburg : — 



1863.] The Ujs t iox Army enters Yicksburg. 333 

"General — I Lave the honor to acknowledge the receipt of your com- 
munication of 3d July. The amendment proposed by you can not be 
acceded to in full. It will be necessary to furnish every officer and man with 
a parole signed by himself, which, with the completion of the roll of pris- 
oners, will necessarily take some time. Again, I can make no stipulations 
with regard to the treatment of citizens and their private property. While 
I do not propose to cause them any undue annoyance or loss, I can not con- 
sent to leave myself under any restraint by stipulations. The property which 
officers will be allowed to take with them will be as stated in my proposi- 
tion of last evening — that is, officers will be allowed their private bag- 
gage and side-arms, and mounted officers one horse each. If you mean by 
vour proposition for each brigade to march to the front of the lines now 
iccnpied by it, and stack arms at ten o'clock, a. m., and then return to the 
nside and there remain as prisoners until properly paroled, I will make no 
tbjection to it. Should no notification be received of your acceptance of 
ay terms by nine o'clock, a. m., I shall regard them as having been rejected, 
and shall act accordingly. Should these terms be accepted, white flags 
should be displayed along your lines to prevent such of my troops as may 
tot have been notified from firing upon your men. 
"I am, general, very respectfully, 

"Your obedient servant, 

" IT. S. Geant, Major-General IT. S. A." 

At ten o'clock on the morning of our [National Anni- 
rersary, the ragged, attenuated rebels who had defended 
ricksburg so stanchly, marched out of their intrench- 
nents. With sad faces the men of each regiment stacked 
heir arms, threw down upon them knapsacks, belts, cart- 
idge-boxes, and cap-pouches, and then tenderly crowned 
he piles with their faded and riddled colors. For two 
tours long tiles in gray performed this duty in mournful 
dlence, while their captors in blue looked on with soldierly 
ympathy, never uttering a taunt. 

Logan' s division, in recognition of its gallantry, occupied 
he post of honor on our advance, and raised the flag upon 
he court-house. When the army saw its triumphant ban- 
ler planted at last, regiment after regiment made the gashed 
•treetsring with the favorite chorus of the national troops : — 

" Yes, we'll rally round the flag, boys, we'll rally once again, 
Shouting the battle-cry of freedom; 
We'll rally from the hill-side, we'll gather from the plain, 
Shouting the battle-cry of freedom." 



334 HlTMOES OF THE HALF-STARVED REBELS. [1863. 

-ant courteously went with his staff' to call on his dis- 
comfited opponent. In the streets the party found con- 
federates and Yankees mingling indiscriminately, sharing 
rations, \laying euchre, and discussing the war, generally 
in entire friendliness. Pemberton and his subordinates re- 
ceived their visitors with marked rudeness. All were sit- 
ting upon rhe porch of the late rebel head-quarters, and 
not one arose\to offer Grant a seat until they had divided 
into knots of tVo and four, and conversed stiffly for fifteen 
minutes. Soon after, the General, thirsty from his hot ride, 
asked for a drink of water. Pemberton pointed silently to 
the rear of the house, where, on stepping out, he discovered 
some negroes at the well. No coldness among them, but 
eager rivalry in serving him. 

Returning to the group, he found his chair occupied 
again, and remained standing. When the party left, the 
staff gave vent to their anger ; but Grant said, laughingly :— 

"Well, if Pemberton can stand it, under the circum- 
stances, I can." 

During the dreary siege the half-starved rebel soldiers 
had shown the genuine national humor. These extracts are 
from a document found in one of their camps : — 

HOTEL DE YICKSBURG. 

BILL OF FAEE FOE JULY, 1863. 
SOUP. 

Mule tail. 

BOILED. 

Mule bacon with poke greens. Mule ham canvassed. 

EOAST. 

Mule sirloin. 

DESSEET. 

White-oak acorns. Blackberry-leaf tea. 

Beech-nuts. • Genuine confederate coffee. 

Parties arriving by the river, or Grant's Inland Route, will find Grape, 
Canister & Company's carriages at the landing, or any depot on the line of 
intrenchments. 

One daily paper had continued publication, though re- 
duced to sore shifts. Toward the end, its fair proportions 
were reduced to a foot square. All the printing, writing, 



\ 



18C3.] The Greatest Capture ever Made. 335 

and wrapping paper of the town was exhausted, so it was 
worked off upon the blank side of wall-paper. When Pem- 
berton surrendered, the form, all ready for the press, con- 
tained the paragraph : — 

" On Dit. — That the great Ulysses — the Yankee Generalissimo, surnamed 
Grant — has expressed his intention of dining in Vicksburg on Saturday next, 
and celebrating the Fourth of July by a grand dinner, and so forth. When 
asked if he would invite General Jo. Johnston to join, he said, ' No ! for fear 
there will be a row at the table.' Ulysses must get into the city before he 
dines in it. The way to cook a rabbit is, ' first catch the rabbit.' " 

The Union typos promptly issued the paper, after add- 
ing, in a postscript of four lines, that the rabbit was caught, 
and that "the Yankee Generalissimo" did take his Fourth- 
of-July dinner in Vicksburg. 

The adjacent country was so stripped of eatables, that the 
General issued to the people ten days' rations for adults and 
half rations for children. Hundreds came miles for the pro- 
visions, including "first families" in their carriages. 

In the capitulation, Grant received fifteen generals, thirty- 
one thousand six hundred soldiers, and one hundred and 
seventy-two cannon — the greatest capture of men and arma- 
ment ever made at one time since the invention of gunpow- 
der, if not since the creation. Adding prisoners previously 
taken, his captures since the first of May were swelled to 
forty-two thousand and fifty-nine men.* That one who 
could speak in such deeds should envy any mere talking or 
writing fluency, is only a fresh proof for Mrs. Stowe' s hero, 
that "as long as folks is folks they will be folksy." 

The country, though electrified by this unparalleled suc- 
cess, feared that the rebels might be put in the ranks again 

* As Grant lost in that time nearly nine thousand men in killed and wounded, 
it is fair to suppose that Pembertou and Johnston, so repeatedly and disastrously 
beaten, lost twelve thousand. Any one who has seen war is aware how small an 
estimate six thousand is for the stragglers in an unsuccessful campaign. The calcu- 
lation is simple: — 

Prisoners 42,000 

Killed and wounded 1 2,000 

Stragglers 6,000 

Total rebel loss in the campaign 00,000 

Badeau. 






336 Sherman disperses Johnston's Army. [1863. 

before their exchange, and at first shared the feeling of a 
gentleman who said to Abraham Lincoln : — 

' ' I don' t like Grant' s paroling these prisoners. We had 
better feed them than fight them." 

"Well," replied the President, "he has accomplished 
so much that we won't quarrel with him about this matter." 
But the General did not mean to have his captives do 
the enemy much good in future. To the indignation of 
Pemberton, who declared it all a Yankee trick, he would 
not deliver them within the rebel lines, or furnish arms that 
the faithful might keep the unfaithful from deserting on 
the way thither ; but he simply turned them loose at Yicks- 
burg, permitting all who desired to go North under guard. 
Many did desert, others remained at their homes within our 
lines, and only a few of the whole ever again carried mus- 
kets for the confederacy. 

Sherman's troops, not even waiting to enter the city 
which they had so zealously helped to capture, turned their 
faces toward the interior, destroying bridges and railways, 
and dispersing Johnston's army to the four winds. 

Grant's brilliant campaign — made easier by Pemberton' s 
glaring weakness — had opened the Great River from the 
Falls of St. Anthony to the southern sea ! When the result 
became known, the Northwest was wild with delight. Yet 
the tidings traveled slowly. In Washington, before they 
arrived, there was grave anxiety. But one evening, Joseph 
A. Ware, editor of Forney' s Chronicle, went to the White 
House, and was ushered in. 

Journalist. — "Mr. President, have you any news to 
give me to-night V ' 

President. — "Yes, great news ; but you must hurry up, 
for I have company down-stairs, and can't wait long. Grant 
has taken Yicksburg ! Here are two disj)atches, one from 
Rawlins, the other from Hurlbut. Don't stop to read them, 
but I'll copy the short one while you copy the long one, as 
you can write faster than I." 

Journalist (after the copying). — "Mr. Lincoln, this must 
be most gratifying to you, after standing by Grant so stead- 
fastly." 



1863.] Abraham Lincoln's Letter to Grant. 337 

President. — " Yes, it is. No man will ever know how 
much trouble I have had to carry my point about him. The 
opposition from several of our best republicans has been so 
bitter that I could hardly resist it." 

Journalist. — "The newspapers assailed him outrage- 
ously." 

President. — "True, but that wasn't half the trouble. 
Why, after Shiloh, a republican senator from Iowa de- 
nounced him to me as bloodthirsty, reckless of human life, 
and utterly unfit to lead troops ; and because I wouldiv t sit 
down and dismiss him at once, went out in a rage, slamming 
the door after him. Even within the last two days, senators 
have demanded his immediate removal." 

The Chief Magistrate, who never did things by halves, 
promptly sent this remarkable autograph letter : — 

'•Executivk Maxsiox, Wasiiixgtox, July 16, 1S68. 

" To Major-General Grant : 

"My Deae General : — I do not remember that you and I ever met per- 
sonally. I write this now as a grateful acknowledgment for the almost ines- 
timable service you have done the country. I wish to say a word further. 
When you first reached the vicinity of Vicksburg, I thought you should do 
what you finally did — march the troops across the neck, run the batteries 
with the transports, and thus go below ; and I never had any faith, except a 
general hope that you knew better than I, that the Yazoo Pass expedition 
and the like could succeed. When you got below and took Port Gibson, 
Grand Gulf, and vicinity, I thought you should go down the river and join 
General Banks; and when you turned northward east of the Big Black, 
I feared it was a mistake. I now wish to make the personal acknowledg- 
ment that you were right and I was wrong. 

" Yours very truly, A. Lincoln/' 

Halleck, stirred to unwonted enthusiasm, also wrote :— 

" In boldness of plan, rapidity of execution, and brilliancy of routes, these 
operations will compare most favorably with those of Napoleon about Ulm. 
You and your army have well deserved the gratitude of your country, and it 
will be the boast of your children, that their fathers were the heroic army 
which reopened the Mississippi River." 

Southern newspapers seemed panic-stricken and ap- 
palled. Northern journals abounded in effusions, of which 
these lines by Alfred B. Street, afford a specimen ;— 
x 



338 



"A Grateful Acknowledgment. 



jj 



[1863. 




1863.1 "YOU WEEE RlGHT AND I WAS WRONG." 339 




340 Monument in Memory of the Surrender. [ 18 63. 

Vicksburg is ours! 

Hurrah ! 

Treachery cowers ! 

Hurrah ! 

Down reels the rebel rag! 

Up shoots the starry flag! 

Vicksburg is ours' 
Hurrah ! 

Arch the green bowers! 
Hurrah ! 
Arch o'er the hero, who 
Nearer and nearer drew, 
Letting wise patience sway, 
Till, from his brave delay, 
Swift as the lightning's ray, 
Bounded he to the fray, 
Full on his fated prey ; 

Till the dread work was done, 
Till the grand wreath was won. 
Triumph is ours ! 
Hurrah ! 

Ere many months, curiosity-seekers had carried away 
every fragment of the trunk and branches of the live oak 
overspreading the site of Grant and Pemberton's historic 
interview, and had even removed the roots for ten feet be- 
low the surface. An obelisk of white marble, twelve feel 
high, and surmounted by a globe, was afterward reared on 
the spot. It bore the inscription : — 

" To the memory of the surrender of Vicksburg by Lieutenant-G-enera 
J. C. Pemberton, to Major-General U. S. Grant, United States Army, on the 
fourth of July, 1863." 

Two years later, unreconstructed Southrons and traveling 
Northern Vandals had obliterated the words and taken awa] 
a large portion of the monument itself. It has therefor* 
been replaced by an immense cannon standing upright, witl 
a huge shell on top — fitting memento of a day forever mem 
orable in the history of military science, of popular govern 
ment, and of a race "redeemed, regenerated, disenthralled 
by the irresistible genius of universal Emancipation." 



1863] Major-General in tiie Regular Army. 341 



CHAPTER XXVIII. 



PROMOTED. 



Weeks earlier the general-in-chief had advised Grant of 
the President's determination to confer the vacant major- 
generalship in the regular army upon the first commander 
who should win a great success. The General was just in 
time ; a few days later Meade would have gained it, for only 
one day after the surrender of Vicksburg, news of the vic- 
tory of Gettysburg fanned Northern exultation into a con- 
inental bonfire from Maine to California. 

After each of Grant's previous successes, the air had 
been filled with clamorous slanders ; but this crowning tri- 
umph silenced them forever. Nobody could make " plain 
people" believe that the captor of Vicksburg was either a 
Ininken or an incapable soldier, and East vied with West 
in lauding the man whose name, inseparably coupled with 
victory, had become a household word. Sunday-school 
medals, swords, horses, degrees from universities, and hon- 
orary memberships in all sorts of societies, were showered 
upon him. His wife, in St. Louis, was serenaded by an im- 
mense throng, and when she appeared on the hotel balcony, 
l< 'ailing upon the arm of General Strong, was greeted with 
rousing cheers. 

As he had borne injustice and misrepresentation with- 
out a murmur, he bore this success, which would have 
turned most heads, with serene and unaffected modesty. 
He did not chime in with those writers and talkers who— 
•rammed with a little military learning — can not describe 
two soldiers crossing a street or going around a corner ex- 
cept as "moving by the flank" or "turning the enemy's 
line." To a visitor who spoke pretentiously of "grand 
logistics" and his " brilliant strategy," he replied:— 



342 A Lesson for Steamboat Men. [1863. 

"Oil, I don't know much about that. I had as many 
men as I wanted, and simply pounded away till I pounded 
the place down !" 

In less than a year a President was to be nominated, and 
newspapers suggested his name. Politicians, too, began to 
tender theVr " influence." But the General, refusing to talk 
at all on tl\e subject, continued quietly doing his duty. 

He was ever mindful of the welfare of his men. Raw- 
lins, on his way to Washington with the official report of 
the capture fof Vicksburg, found that Mississippi River 
steamers were Exacting enormous prices for the transporta- 
tion of soldiers Agoing home on furlough. He reported the 
facts to his chief, who thereupon issued an order, restrict- 
ing charges to the rate per mile which the Government 
paid for transporting troops. This cut them down more 
than two-thirds. 

Shortly afterward, the Hope, about leaving Vicksburg 
for Cairo, took on board twelve hundred officers and men, 
charging them eaoli from ten to twenty-five dollars passage 
money. Down came an order, enforced by a file of soldiers, 
requiring her captain to refund to every enlisted man the 
excess he had paid above five dollars, and to each officer 
the excess above seven dollars. The passengers cheered 
until they were hoarse, and Grant did not permit the boat 
to leave until the last dollar was paid back. 

" I will teach thesd steamboat men," he said, " that sol- 
diers who have periled their lives to open the Mississippi 
for their benefit must not be imposed upon." 

Charges by the mile broved a little confusing, so he sub- 
sequently established thb raters : — From St. Louis to Cairo, 
four dollars ; to Memphis, ten dollars ; to Vicksburg, six- 
teen dollars ; to Port Hudson, twenty dollars. 

Chase, Secretary of the Treasury, favored the immediate 
resumption of trade with thfe conquered regions. Grant 
opposed it, in a letter to the Government, on the ground 
that it was premature, and would demoralize our army, and 
help the rebels. He added : — 

1" But no theory of my own will ever stand in the way of my executing 
in good faith any order I may receive from those in authority over me." 



1803.] Grant Deals with a Cotton-Buyer. 343 

One day a stranger presented himself with a recommenda- 
tion, signed by several members of Congress, and other North- 
ern politicians. Glancing at it, the General — who was wont 
to declare that he had not yet found one honest man follow- 
ing the army as a trader — asked impatiently : — 

" This is for a permit to buy cotton, is it not S" 

"Yes." 

"Well, you can take it, and leave these head-quarters 
at once. If I find you here again, Til have you arrested. 
Men of your class are doing more to corrupt this army than 
all other kinds of rascality put together." 

The speculator ingloriously decamped. The enormous 
fortunes made by this dubious traffic naturally excited the 
bitterness of conscientious officers working hard for slender 
remuneration and the privilege of being shot at. One 
evening, the staff sat idly in front of head-quarters. 

Bowers (vehemently). — " I'm a fool. I have mistaken 
my vocation. I think Til go into cotton-stealing, as the only 
only way to prosper." 

Graxt (laughing). — "I don't know about that. I don't 
believe it does prosper generally, though there are streaks 
of success in roguery, as in every thing else." • 

Bowers. — "Well, I think I'll resign and go into cotton. 
At least I would if I had the money. You know when I 
drew my pay- last ; here is all I have left." 

And from the depths of his pocket the aide produced a 
solitary penny. The General, fumbling in his own pocket, 
seemed, likewise, unable to find any memento of pay-day ; 
but at last he brought to the surface a silver half-dollar, and 
tossing it to his young friend, said : — 

" Here, Joe, take this for a 'stake.' " 

Bowers had these words engraved upon the coin, and 
always carried it. After his tragic death it was found in 
his pocket. 

Grant recommended several colonels and brigadiers for 
promotion, and the Government, now very gracious, acceded 
in every case. Among them was the zealous and able Kaw- 
lins. Never had commander a more loyal and efficient 
helper, or one more heartily appreciated and loved. 



344 Soldiers to Vote as they Pleased. [1863. 

In no form was the General's genius more conspicuous 
than in his quick recognition of any special capacity, and 
his knowing exactly where to put it. E. S. Parker — an- 
other strong man, of unusual culture and accomplishments, 
though of unmixed Indian blood — soon afterward joined 
the staff, and has since continued a leading and valuable 
member.* 

The President desired to organize one hundred thousand 
negro soldiers in the Mississippi Valley. Grant zealously 
co-operated, stating, as the result of his observation, that 
negroes were more easily disciplined than white troops, and 
asking that as many as possible might be placed under him. 
At every post he established a camp for contrabands out of 
employment, and allowed them to work for planters who 
could give satisfactory bonds for their pay and kind treat- 
ment. 

Most Northern States passed laws allowing their soldiers 
in the field to vote. Grant responded! to an inquiry : — 

"Your letter, asking if citizens of the State of Iowa will be allowed to 
visit this army and distribute tickets when the election is held for soldiers to 
vote, is just received. In reply I will state that loyal citizens of Northern 
States will be allowed to visit the troops from their States at any time. 
Electioneering, or any course calculated to arouse discordant feelings, will be 
prohibited. The volunteer soldiers of the army will be allowed to hold an 
election, if the law gives them the right to vote, and no power shall jirevent 
them from voting the ticket of their choice.''' 1 

* Brigadier-General Parker is descended from that portion of the Indian race 
known as the Iroquois, or Six Nations, originally the most powerful confederacy of 
Indian tribes on our continent. Indeed, speculative writers have claimed that the 
alliance under which the American colonies fjpught the war for Independence, and 
which afterward ripened into the United States, was based upon it. Since the Revo- 
lution, the Six Nations have declined in numbers and power, though they still main- 
tain a quasi national existence. 

General Parker spent his early days with them in their wild life, not beginning 
his English education until he had nearly reached manhood. After spending three 
years at school and two in studying law, he practiced civil engineering, first in the 
service of the State of New York, and afterward under the National Government. 
In the fall of 186?>, he was ordered to duty on Grant's staff, with the rank of captain 
and assistant-adjutant- general. He was in the Chattanooga campaign, and the 
Virginia battles of 1864—5. He has had several honorable commissions to treat 
with refractory Indian tribes, and has performed other valuable public services. 

f August fourth. 



1863.] His View on the Slavery Question. 345 

But while determined that troops should vote as they 
pleased, his own views were very emphatic. To Lo- 
gan, at home — "stumping" for the Union candidates — he 
wrote: — 

"I send you ten days 1 extension of leave, and will give you as many more 
as you require. I have read your speeches in Illinois, and feel that you are 
really doing more good there than you could possibly here, while your com- 
mand is lying idle." 

Senator Henry Wilson, in a letter to Washburne, alluded 
to rumors that the General would be called East, and also 
expressed the hope that his large influence would be thrown 
against the prime cause and strength of the rebellion. The 
note was forwarded to him, and lie replied : — * 

" I fully appreciate all Senator Wilson says. Had it not been for General 
Halleck, and Dana, I think it altogether likely I would have been ordered to 
the Potomac. My going could do no possible good. They have there able 
officers who have been brought up with that army ; and to import a com- 
mander to place over them, certainly could produce no good. 

"Whilst I would not positively disobey an order, I would have objected 
most vehemently to taking that command, or any other, except the one I 
have. I can do more with this army than it would be possible for me to do 
with any other, without time to make the same acquaintance with others I 
have with this. I know that the soldiers of the Army of the Tennessee can 
be relied on to the fullest extent. I believe I know the exact capacity of 
every general in my command to command troops, and just where to place 
them, to get from them their best services. This is a matter of no small 
consequence. 

* * * u Xhe people of the North need not quarrel over the institution 
of slavery. What Vice-President Stephens acknowledges as the corner- 
stone of the confederacy is already knocked out. Slavery is already dead, 
and can not be resurrected. It would take a standing army to maintain 
slavery in the South if we were to make peace to-day guaranteeing to the 
South all their former constitutional privileges. 

" I never was an abolitionist — not even what could be called anti-slavery 
— but I try to judge fairly and honestly; and it became patent to my mind 
early in the rebellion, that the North and South could never live in peace 
with each other except as one nation. As anxious as I am to see ])eace, and 
that without slavery, re-established, I would not therefore ~be willing to see 
any settlement until this question is forever settled, 

* August thirtieth. 



346 A Very Moderate Ambition. [1863. 

" Rawlins and Maltby have been appointed brigadier-generals. These are 
richly deserved promotions. Rawlins especially is no ordinary man. The 
fact is, had he started in this war in the line instead of in the staff, there is 
every 'probability he would be to-day one of our shining lights. As it is, he 
is better and more favorably known than probably any other officer in the 
army, who has filled only staff appointments. Some men — too many of them 
— are only made by their staff appointments, whilst others give respecta- 
bility to the position. Rawlins is of the latter class. My kind regards to 
the citizens of Galena." 

Grant, always chafing at inactivity, repeatedly asked 
permission to capture Mobile, now feebly defended. But, 
in view of the flagrant intervention of France and Great 
Britain in the affairs of Mexico, the President wished to 
send a force to the Rio Grande, and stripped him of troops 
to supply Banks and other Western commanders. 

Sherman, under his chief's instructions to conciliate the 
people, supplied sick and wounded rebels — soldiers and 
civilians — in the interior of Mississippi, with medicines and 
provisions. This kindness helped to dispel the illusion of 
the ignorant about the harshness of the nation toward its 
conquered foes, and largely increased the already frequent 
desertions from the confederate service. 

During these idle days, an old acquaintance asked the 
General : — 

' ' What do you think now about going back to Galena 
and to civil life V ' 

"Well, my position in the army seems to be assured, 
and I shall be quite satisfied if I can educate my children 
properly,* and keep a saddle-horse for myself, and a pair 
of carriage-horses for my wife." 

" You are liable to be ordered from place to place, which 
is unpleasant and inconvenient." 

' ' True ; but hereafter the Government will hardly be 
likely to send me where I don't wish to go." 

During a brief trip to Memphis, f a banquet was offered 
him by the Board of Trade, and another by the municipal 

* He had already invested in Chicago three thousand dollars, saved since the 
beginning of the war. 
f August twenty-third. 




GEN. JOHN A. RAWLINS, CHIEF OF. STAFF, AKMT OF D. S. 



1863 -1 Grant Feted in Memphis. 347 

authorities. Such displays were not at all to his taste, but 
he accepted both, in recognition of the first exhibition of 
loyalty in that city. 

Though always writing his own official papers, civil and 
military, with great clearness and rapidity, seldom changing 
a word from the first draft, any merely formal note or speech 
confounded him. On receiving the proffer of the first ban- 
quet, he remarked to a friend : — 

" I don't see how I can find time to write an answer to 
this invitation." 

" Shall I write it I" 

"I wish you would." 

When it was prepared, he approved and signed it. 

After submitting to an hour of hand- shaking, he sat 
down with the company at the Gayoso House. When he 
was toasted, a member of his staff replied for him in words 
fit but few : — 

" General Grant believes that he has no more than done 
his duty — for which no particular honor is due." 

At the second banquet, the cup which cheers and also 
inebriates, inspired new-born cordiality in the city fathers 
and the mayor. The latter functionary, in zealous but un- 
manageable hospitality, first emptied a plate of soup into 
the lap of Adjutant-General Lorenzo Thomas, and then 
showered a bottle of champagne upon his venerable crown. 
This latter blessing in disguise kindled such unwonted wrath 
in the amiable old gentleman, that his honor's retirement 
from the festive scene was accelerated by a well-grounded 
fear of having " his head punched." 

On the way back to Vicksburg, the persistent persuasion 
of a young lady— also a passenger on the boat— induced the 
General, for the first time since re-entering the service, to 
join in a game of cards. Her supplementary pleadings that 
he would appoint her father— a surgeon— to the charge of a 
Memphis hospital, he steadfastly resisted, saying :- 

" In such a matter I will not interfere with my medical 
director." 

During the last days of August, Grant visited New 
Orleans for a military conference with Banks. Hundreds of 



348 Visits New Orleans. t 1863 - 

citizens and soldiers nocked to see him at the St. Charles 
Hotel, and, when the shades of night were falling fast, gave 
him a serenade, and clamored for a speech. At his request, 
a friend responded in remarks occupying a quarter of a 
minute : — 

" Gentlemen: General Grant never speaks in public, "but 
he desires me to thank you for your beautiful serenade, and 
to congratulate you that communication is at last open 
between Cairo and New Orleans." 

How many another general would have devoted an hour 
to the vindicating of himself from past charges and the ex- 
pounding of his military and civil ''policy I" 

The next morning Banks called to invite him to a ride, 
but found that he had already procured a team. Taking 
Banks in the vehicle with him, and holding the lines for the 
first time since leaving Galena, he put the two spanking bays 
upon their mettle, and left every thing else behind on "the 
shell road." 

When the bays were sent back to the livery stable their 
owner exclaimed : — 

"That General Grant must be a terrible driver ; these 
horses steam like a locomotive." 

The next day the generals attended a grand review at the 
suburb of Carrollton. 

"The street was crowded to witness the departure of these officers, all 
present being desirous of seeing Grant. He was in undress uniform, without 
sword, sash, or belt; coat unbuttoned, a low-crowned black felt bat, without 
any mark upon it of military rank ; a pair of kid gloves, and a cigar in his 
mouth." 

The display was magnificent, and the Thirteenth Corps, 
whose colors had been on the front at Belmont, Donelson, 
Shiloh, and Yicksburg, passing their old chief who sat 
upon his horse, shielded by a live oak from the broiling sun, 
greeted him with thundering cheers. 

In compliment to Grant's equestrian skill, Banks had 
provided him with a very large and spirited horse fyhich he 
could hardly restrain while galloping along the lines. On 
starting back to the city, the charger grew quite unmanage- 
able, and flew like the wind, leaving the cavalcade far be 



1863] A Bad Fall from his Horse. 349 

hind. Near the Carrollton Hotel, taking fright at a steam 
whistle, he dashed against a carriage, and fell heavily with 
his whole weight upon Grant' s leg and hip. 

The General was carried on a litter back to the St. 
Charles, and propped up in bed with pillows. For two 
weeks he lay there with characteristic serenity, uttering no 
impatient word, but amusing himself with conversation, and 
with that drollest of American books, "Phcenixana." He 
was kept in bed for twenty days, and used crutches for 
two months. But he continued to make the best of it, and 
described the accident to a friend as an attempt by his steed 
to run through a heavy coach, which failed because the 
horse proved "the weaker vessel." 

He returned to Vicksburg, where Mrs. Grant and the 
children* now spent some weeks with him at head-quarters, 
a pleasant residence on the bluff, with a grassy yard full of 
shading trees and snowy tents, and commanding a splen- 
did view for miles up the river. 

Grant' s administration in the far West was now at an 
end. He had been the most successful, the most economical, 
and the most humane of our generals. 

His army had written Donelson, Shiloh, Corinth, and 
Vicksburg upon its banners in letters that no coming time 
could efface. 

It had cost the Government far less for food and trans- 
portation than any other equal number of troops. 

It had not seen a single man hanged or shot by the 
orders of its commander. At an early day deserters, guer- 
rillas, and spies were sentenced to death, but the law then 
prohibited the execution of any military criminal until the 
President should order it, after first examining the case. 
At Grant's head-quarters all capital sentences were revoked 
if any error or informality could be found in the trial. 
When those in which no flaw could be picked were sent to 
Washington, the aides used to remark : — 

* After he entered the service in 1861 they remained for a year in Galena, and 
afterward with her family in St. Louis, and with his father in Covington, until the 
spring of 1864. When the General was ordered East he established them in a 
pleasant village near Philadelphia, that he might be able to see them often. 



350 Inflicts no Death Penalties. [i863. 

* ' These fellows are safe enough. Uncle Abe is never 
going to shoot them." 

He never did. Finally, Congress believing his soft- 
heartedness injurious to discipline, changed the law, and 
authorized army commanders to inflict the death penalty. 
Then forty or fifty capital sentences which had not been 
acted upon were sent back for execution. Some of them 
were already eight months old, and the General suspended 
them until Rawlins could submit to the Government the 
legal doubt whether he had any right to hang or shoot 
these men, when the law existing at the time of their trial 
required the President's approval of their condemnation. 
As no answer ever came, the culprits went scot free. 

A few soldiers deserted, because they could not obtain 
furloughs, or disliked their officers, or disapproved of the 
emancipation policy. But Grant gave leaves of absence 
freely, his army was always successful, which kept its tone 
excellent, and there were less desertions proportionately 
than from any other command in the Union. It is equally 
true of soldier as of civilian, that the worst possible use 
society can put a man to is to hang him. 



1863.] The Peril in Tennessee. 351 



CHAPTER XXIX. 

A NEW FIELD. 

In Tennessee there was trouble and peril. Rosecrans, by 
skillful movements, had driven Bragg south of the Tennes- 
see River, but the rebel general, being re-enforced, resumed 
the offensive, and about the middle of September brought 
on the great battle of Chickamauga.* Rosecrans, who went 
into it with overweening confidence, lost sixteen thousand 
men and fifty-five guns, and was only saved from annihi- 
lation by the pluck and generalship of Thomas, who held 
his little force so firmly against the whole rebel onset, that 
our soldiers named him "The Rock of Chickamauga." 

Bragg seized all Rosecrans' communications except one 
difficult mountain wagon-road, and kept him, practically be- 
sieged and in imminent danger of starvation, in Chatta- 
nooga, the only point he held south of the Tennessee, 
except the head of his pontoon-bridge at Bridgeport, twenty- 
eight miles below. 

Sherman' s corps was ordered to march from Memphis to 
co-operate with Rosecrans. Just before it started, Sher- 
man' s little boy died. The bereaved father wrote : 

" Consistent with a sense of duty to ray profession and office, I could not 
leave my post, and so I sent to my family to come to me in that fatal cli- 
mate and in that sickly period of the year, and behold the result! The 
child that bore my name, and in whose future I reposed witli more confi- 
dence than I did in my own plans of life, now floats a mere corpse, seeking 
a grave in a distant land. * * * God only knows why he should die thus 
young!" 

At mid-day on the tenth of October, the captor of Vicks- 
burg, barely able to hobble on crutches, received a dis- 
patch from Halleck : — 

* Indian, "stagnant stream," or "bad water;" — poetically translated by our 
writer. The River of Death. 



352 The Whole West under Grant. [i863. 

" It is the wish of the Secretary of War that as soon as General Grant 
is able to take the field he will go to Cairo and report by telegraph." 

He started the same night, and arriving at Cairo,* found 
a second order : — 

" Proceed, by the way of Indianapolis, to the Gait House, Louisville, 
Kentucky, where you will meet an officer of the War Department with 
your orders and instructions. You will take with you your staff for imme- 
diate operations in the field." 

At Indianapolis, Stanton, Secretary of War, met the 
party, and accompanied it to Louisville, where he spent 
twenty-four hours with the General. His visit was partly 
from curiosity and partly for conference. The West con- 
tained the departments of the Ohio under Burnside, the Ten- 
nessee under Grant, and the Cumberland under Rosecrans. 
The Government, after many representations from various 
sources, had been stimulated into making a change at Chat- 
tanooga, by a letter from Garfield, Rosecrans' chief of staff, 
to Secretary Chase, setting forth the desperate situation. 

Stanton brought an order from the President consolida- 
ting the three departments into the Grand Military Division 
of the Mississippi, to be under Grant, with head-quarters in 
the field. He offered the General his choice between two 
further orders, one continuing Rosecrans in command, and 
the other substituting Thomas. Grant, who had lost faith 
in Rosecrans since his dilatoriness in pursuing, after Cor- 
inth, and had also been hurt by his intemperate criticisms, 
chose the latter. Stanton offered to issue the order, but 
he took the responsibility. 

There were fears that Rosecrans would abandon the posi- 
tion, though it would have been impossible for his reduced 
and weakened animals to remove all his wagons and artil- 
lery, sick and wounded. Grant telegraphed to Thomas, 
informing him of the change, and adding : — u Hold Chatta- 
nooga at all hazards. I will be there as soon as possible." 

The stanch subordinate replied: — "We will hold the 
town until we starve." 

* October sixteenth. 



1863.] Hard Journey to Chattanooga. 353 

Southern journals, assuming a sanguineness though they 
had it not, declared that Lincoln had supplanted one hero — 
Rosecrans — with two fools — Grant and Thomas. The Presi- 
dent, seeing the paragraph, said, laughingly : — 

"With one more fool like Grant we should make short 
work of them ! ' ' 

The General was thoroughly aroused for his new work. 
Reaching Nashville at midnight, * he sent dispatches to Burn- 
side, to Admiral Porter, and to Thomas, ordering prepara- 
tions for movements he already contemplated. At the 
same place he encountered Charles A. D ana, who had been 
at Chattanooga representing the War Department, and whom 
he induced to return, that he might avail himself of Dana' s 
knowledge of affairs. 

At Stevenson, the next day, he met Rosecrans on his 
way north. The retiring general greeted his successor: — 

" How are you, Sam 2" 

Then the two talked for a few minutes, Rosecrans, with 
hearty patriotism, giving all the information in his power. 

Hooker was with the Eleventh Corps, under Howard, 
and the Twelfth, under Slocum, at Stevenson and Bridge- 
port. He had come to re-enforce Rosecrans, but kept his 
troops along the railway, that they might not share and 
aggravate the suffering at Chattanooga. Hooker came on 
board the train, and the two officers/ who had not met since 
they were stationed in California, y^nversed for a few min- 
utes, though one obviously fei^lf that the wrong relation 
existed between them. 

The next day was very rainy, but the General and staff 
rode from Bridgeport to Chattanooga, sixty miles as their 
road meandered. They found it crowded with wagons and 
strewn with dead mules. The chief, still so lame that any 
unusual exercise tortured him, started in an ambulance, but 
soon took to his horse. Soldiers bore him in their arms 
over the roughest places. At every telegraph station he 
dispatched instructions to distant subordinates. Compre- 
hending, as if by intuition, the condition and needs of his 



. 






* October twentieth. 



354 Phil. Sheridan becoming Known. [ 186 3. 

scattered forces, lie inspired every subordinate with some- 
thing of his own zeal and vigor. 

. Just before reaching Chattanooga, for the first time since 

/ his injury, neT Walked alone for a few yards, and even 

/ remounted wfyhout assistance. But a moment after, his 

horse stumbled, and fell upon his unfortunate hip, causing 

intense pain, bu& happily, no permanent harm. After dark 

the party >entereck the town, chilled, hungry, and utterly 

\ exhausted!. ^ 

\Dana and Wilson, who had taken a short cut and ridden 
ard, were already there. The former called to congratu- 
late Thomas. A month before, under instructions from 
Washington, he had expressed to that admirable officer the 
Government's appreciation of his important services at 
Chickamauga and Stone Elver, and assured him that an 
independent command would be tendered him at the earliest 
favorable opportunity. Thomas replied : — 

" I should be glad of one, if I could organize and disci- 
pline the army for myself ; but I should not like to take a 
command, already having a distinctive character acquired in 
active service." 

Now, Thomas protested laughingly that his wishes had 
not been regarded. Dana answered : — 

" The Government seems to have thought, very properly, 
that you were not to be consulted in this change." 

Sheridan was becoming a little known, from his conspic- 
uous gallantry at Stone River, where he commanded a divi- 
sion in a cedar thicket. " I thought it was infernally hot 
there before I got in," said Rousseau; "but I knew it 
when I saw Phil. Sheridan, with hat in one hand and sword 
in the other, fighting as if he were a devil incarnate." 

Quartermaster service was the sorest need now, and 
Halleck* telegraphed : — 

" Sheridan is one of the best officers in the array to regulate transporta- 
tion and supplies. He fully supplied Curtis's army in mid-winter over the 
most horrible roads." 

The General and his aides took their first meals with 

* October twenty-second. 



1863 -] The Army almost Starving. 355 

Thomas. He welcomed them cordially, though his staff- 
officers were a little sore at seeing a superior placed over 
their chief. In two or three days the servants came up, and 
Grant established head-quarters in a pleasant dwelling on 
a little bluff overlooking the river and the main street. 

Forage was so scarce that all the horses, except two or 
three for orderlies, were sent back to Stevenson. For ten 
days the party lived on coffee, "hard tack," and dessical <! 
vegetables, with two or three meals of salt meat. The army 
was starving. Some fortunate brigades received a little 
fresh beef, and corn, counted out by the ear. Hungry sol- 
diers eagerly collected and ate kernels of corn which the 
mules had left while it was yet plentiful. 

Chattanooga, * an important railway junction in Tennes- 
see, near the corners of Georgia and Alabama, nestles high 
in a mountain pass, the counterpart of 

" Many a lonely hamlet, 
Which, hid by beech and pine, 
Like an eagle's nest, hangs on the crest 
Of purple Apennine." 

Two miles east passes Missionary Ridge, four hundred 
feet high — the site of schools and churches established years 
ago by Catholic missionaries among the Cherokee Indians. 

Three miles southwest is Lookout Mountain, + two thou- 
sand feet above sea level, and fourteen hundred above the 
Tennessee, which washes its base. The summit affords a 
grand view of portions of Alabama, Tennessee, Georgia, 
North Carolina, Kentucky, and Virginia, and thirty miles 
of the silvery Tennessee, winding through a cool, green 
landscape. The north side counterfeits a human face, with 
a pointed ledge for the nose. Surmounting palisades of 

* Indian, " Crow's nest," dignified by writers into " Eagle's nest." 
\ Lookout Mountain is properly a continuation of the range of mountains which, 
beginning in Pennsylvania, extends in a southwesterly direction through Virginia, 
Tennessee, Georgia, and Alabama; and which is known in the East as the Allegha- 
nies, in the West as the Cumberland, and in the South as Lookout Mountain. The 
range would be an unbroken chain from the Susquehanna to the Coosa, from the 
iron and coal fields of Pennsylvania to the gold region of Georgia, if it were not for 
the existence of the Tennessee River. — William F. G. Shanks. 



356 



The Town Invested by Bragg. 



[1863. 



gray rock encircle the brow like a crown, and at times soft, 
fleecy clouds envelop it like the snowy locks of age. 



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THE CHATTANOOGA CAMPAIGN. 

Chattanooga was too strongly fortified for Bragg to carry 
it by storm, but his arching line, from the river above to 
the river below, completely invested the southeast side, and 
inclosed Missionary Ridge and Lookout, whose batteries 
dropped shells into the city every day. Streets and yards 
were gashed with rifle pits, and so much fresh dirt was 
spaded up among the board huts of the soldiers, that Chat- 
tanooga seemed like some enormous prairie-dog town. 

Our army was on quarter rations. Three thousand sick 
and wounded soldiers suffered for the common necessities 
of life. The animals were utterly worn out, the artillery 
horses were back at the railroad, and there were believed 
to be ten thousand dead mules on the road to Bridgeport. 
Ammunition was almost expended, and the troops were 
short of clothing. But they toiled away, and, trying to 
keep jolly under adverse circumstances, named the solid 
squares of hard bread, which were their chief subsistence,, 
1 ' Lincoln platform. ' ' 

Jefferson Davis, visiting Bragg' s army, ascended Look- 
out, and made a reassuring speech to his soldiers, from a 
ledge known as Pulpit Rock, but called by our men the 
Devil's Pulpit," after his visit. 



a 



1863.] Grant Seizes Lookout Yalley. 35' 

The Union position was difficult and perilous. The rail 
way brought supplies to Bridgeport. Thence up to Chat 
tanooga the river is navigable, but the enemy held it 
Rosecrans' original wagon road from Bridgeport to Chatta 
nooga hugged the south bank of the river for several mile 
near Lookout Mountain, and the rebels soon captured ii 
Then he used the road north of the Tennessee, sixty mile 
long, and also touching the stream in several places. Sharp 
shooters on the south bank made these exposed points im 
practicable. So a route still longer and farther north wa 
opened ; and even this suffered from the enemy' s cavalry. 

It was necessary to send heavy guards with every trai: 
to protect it. The road, washed by unusual rains, an< 
compelled to find new tracks, stretched at last to sevent; 
miles. The trip to Bridgeport and back sometimes occupie< 
four weeks. Trains returned empty, all the food and forag 
they started with having been eaten by the guards and tli 
weakened animals. Others were so long exposed to the rai] 
that when they reached Chattanooga the provisions wer 
spoiled and had to be thrown away in sight of the starving 
soldiers. 

Rosecrans, and afterward Thomas, had been hauling sup 
plies for fifty thousand men over this route, at some point 
through fathomless mire, and at others along mountaii 
shelves so narrow that if a single wagon broke down, al 
behind it must stop and wait. 

Bragg' s possession of Lookout Yalley rendered it impos 
sible to shorten this tortuous road. Rosecrans, and W. F 
Smith, his chief engineer, had already originated a plai 
for driving him out, but without taking any active steps 
Thomas, however, issued orders for executing it befor< 
Grant's arrival. These orders the General promptly con 
firmed. 

In pursuance of them, Hooker crossed at Bridgepor 
and started through the mountains to get into Lookou 
Yalley. A few hours later, at three o' clock, on a very darl 
morning,* pontoon boats, each containing thirty soldier* 

* October twenty-sixth. 



358 The Charge of the Mule Brigade. [1863. 

of Smith's command, pushed off from Chattanooga, floated 
/silently down for six miles, passing the rebel sentinels 
unobserved, and landed on the south bank, at the mouth of 
the valley, capturing the enemy's pickets. Before morning, 
Smith' s men had cut the timber from the hills commanding 
Lookout Valley on the west, planted artillery, and intrench- 
ed themselves. They immediately built a pontoon bridge 
from the north bank, which would enable Grant, in case of 
battle, to re-enforce them from Chattanooga, quicker than 
Bragg could re-enforce Lookout Mountain from Missionary 
Ridge. 

The next evening, from the overlooking summit, Long- 
street saw the fires of Geary, one of Hooker's corps com- 
manders, encamped in the valley near Wauhatchie. A 
glance showed him that this movement, if not prevented, 
would end the siege of Chattanooga, and he sent his troops 
to dislodge Geary at all hazards. 

At midnight they fell upon him. It was so dark that the 
Union soldiers could hardly distinguish each other from the 
rebels. For three hours there was fierce fighting. A large 
number of mules added to the confusion by breaking from 
their wagons and running in wild stampede toward the 
enemy, who, fancying it a cavalry charge, fled in panic. 
The droll incident provoked the parody : — 

"Mules to the right of them, 
Mules to the left of them, 
Mules in front of them, 
Pawed, brayed, and thundered. 
Breaking their own confines, 
Breaking through Longstreet's lines, 
Into the Georgia troops, 

Stormed the two hundred. 
Wild all their eyes did glare, 
Whisked all their tails in air, 
Scattering the ' Chivalry' there, 

All the world wondered!" 

Longstreet' s force was much the larger, but he directed 
its movements by torches from the mountain, and our 
officers, who had fortunately learned his signal code, read 
each successive order and repeated it to Geary, enabling 



1863.] The Question of Supplies Settled. 359 

the Union general to anticipate and repulse every attack. 
Before daylight the discomfited rebels fell back. 

No more starvation for the Union troops ! Supplies 
could come up from Bridgeport on scows and a little 
steamer, which the soldiers had built, to Kelly's Ferry, 
and thence by wagon to Chattanooga, or by wagon all the 
way. Within one3VBel^-Grant had raised the siege. 

He gave his subordinate full credit, telegraphing to 
Halleck : — * 

" General Thomas' 1 plan for securing the river and south-side road to 
Bridgeport has proven eminently successful. The question of supplies may 
now be regarded as settled." 

Grant' s military division — the largest ever yet given to 
an American general— stretched from the lower Mississippi 
to the east line of Tennessee, and was guarded b y two h un- 
dred__thojisand soldiers. 

Sherman, who had succeeded to the command of the 
Department of the Tennessee, was rnaking for Chattanooga 
as fast as building bridges, repairing railways, and driving 
the enemy from his front permitted ; and Grant was waiting 
his arrival, that he might attack the rebel army with cer- 
tainty of success. 

Burnside was at Knoxville, a hundred miles northeast 
of Chattanooga, withjwenty-jve thousand hungry soldiers, 
compelled to haul their supplies one hundred miles, after 
little steamers had carried them up the Cumberland for five 
hundred. 

Bragg, never imagining that he could be dislodged from 
his mountain positions, detached Longstreet's corps, f and 
afterward Buckner's division, to destroy Burnside. Grant, 
learning of it frora, ^des erters — unusually numerous and 
friendly, being tl mon mountainee rs, whom the rebels had 
impressed— pronounced it the weakest act he had ever 
known in a military leader. Bragg was jeopardizing Lis 
main army for the chance of a trivial and partial success. 

But the defeat of Burnside would involve the loss of all 

* October ninth. f November third. 



360 Grant Prepares for Battle. D 863 - 

East Tennessee. So Grant instructed Thomas to attack 
Missionary Ridge vigorously, for the purpose of calling 
Longstreet back. He wrote : — 

"Where there are not horses to move the artillery, mules must be taken 
from the trains or horses from ambulances, or, if necessary, officers dis- 
mounted and their horses taken. * * * The movement should not be 
made a moment later than to-morrow morning." 

Lack of horses rendered it utterly impossible for Thomas 
to move, and the General telegraphed Burnside : — 

"It is of the utmost importance that East Tennessee should be held. 
* * * I can hardly conceive the necessity of retreating. If I did so at 
all, it would be after losing most of the army.''' 

The welcome form of Sherman soon appeared at head- 
quarters. He came in with restored cheerfulness, and, after 
the usual off-hand greetings, Grant gave him the only chair 
which his office afforded. The two chatted a little as to 
which was the older man, and, therefore, entitled to the 
seat ; then fell into grave military discussion. The next 
day* Grant issued orders for battle, f 

On our right was Hooker, extending to the west side of 
Lookout Mountain; in the center, Thomas, facing Missionary 
Ridge and covering the city. Bragg supposed our main 
attack would be on Lookout, and Grant encouraged this be- 
lief by fictitious camp-fires and displays of troops, and ad- 
vancing his line up the western slope. At the same time, 
Sherman's force was on the north side of the river, behind 
a range of hills, creeping toward Missionary Ridge, and 
kindling no fires, lest the smoke should betray it to the 
enemy. Sherman was to hold our extreme left, with How- 
ard' s corps filling the gap between him and Thomas. The 
army faced southwest. 

* November sixteenth. 

f All of Grant's letters of instructions to his commanders have been noticeable 
for their completeness, their quiet, conversational tone, and the absence of any rhe- 
torical display in style or boasting in matter. I particularly remember the easy and 
familiar style of his secret instructions for the battle of Chattanooga; they read more 
like a pleasant letter from one friend to another, discussing domestic affairs, rather 
than the commander-in-chief's circular, ordering the grand movements of an impor- 
tant battle. — William F. G. Shanks. 



1863.] The Blue-Coats Mislead Grant. 



CHAPTER XXX. 

CHATTANOOGA. 

Fob several days Grant chafed under delays caused by 
heavy rains. A brief dispatch came from Bragg : — * 

" As there may be some non-combatants in Ghatt g .. I deem i: proper 
to notify yon that prudence wonld di - .-. their early withdrawaL" 

This threat was only made to cover weakness : I 
Bragg found, ere long, that prudence dictated the "early 
withdrawal " of somebody else beside non-combatants from 

the vicinity. 

From the river to the foot of Missionary Ridge, two miles 
and a half, are level farms and swamps. Thomas's picket 
lines were so near Bragg' s. that the opposing soldiers talfe 
familiarly, and at one point were only separated by the nar- 
row bed of Chattanooga Creek. One morning, as Gran: - 
upon his horse on the bank, a party of rebels in bine came 
down on the other side to draw water. Snpposing them to 
be his own men, the General asked : — 

••What corps do yon belong to :" 

" Longstreet's." 

••What are von doing in these coats, then:" 

" Oh ! all onr corps wear bine." 

The fact had escaped his memory ; but having the p I 
fortune not to be recognized, he rode away. 

At last all things were ready. On the bright afternoon 
of November twenty-third. Gordon Granger's corps 
Thomas's army pushed forward toward the Ridge in such 
perfect order, that the rebel pickets, supposing it a rev. 
stood leaning upon their mnskets in soldierly admiration. 

* November twentieth. 



362 First and Second Days' Fighting. [ 1863 - 

Whistling bullets soon dispelling this delusion, they fell 
back through a strip of cottonwoods to their first rifle- 
pits. 

Sharp fighting followed. At Fort Wood, the highest 
ground in the vicinity, and near the center of Thomas' s line, 
Grant sat upon the guns, overlooking the conflict, chatting 
quietly, and sending out orders with less display than many 
a sergeant makes in posting his men. 

Among the division generals was Phil. Sheridan, fighting, 
for the first time, under the eye of his chief. Our forces 
swept forward, capturing two hundred prisoners, and a mile 
in advance of Fort Wood, occupying a high mound, which 
they named Orchard Knoll, from its scattered scrub oaks, 
resembling apple-trees. 

JBefore night our lines had advanced a mile, or two-thirds 
of the way to the Ridge, pressing back the enemy, with a 
loss of about one hundred in killed and wounded on each 
side. Bragg' s resistance satisfied Grant that he was not re- 
treating, as deserters had reported. Our men slept upon 
their arms, and the General and staff returned to their quar- 
ters in the town. 

After dark, Sherman's advance reaching the north bank, 
four miles above Chattanooga, floated silently down on pon- 
toons, undetected by the rebel pickets, and at daylight eight 
thousand held a strong position on the south bank, having 
surprised and driven back the enemy. 

Before noon a bridge was built, and Sherman's entire 
force was in position. There was some sharp fighting as he 
pushed forward his left toward the summit of Missionary 
Ridge — gaining and fortifying two high points. Thomas 
also advanced his lines, and there was heavy cannonading 
from morning until night. 

Our front, from Sherman's left to Hooker's right, was 
six miles long. Two days before, seeing Hooker's corps 
moving in, Bragg had said : — 

" Now we shall have a grand Potomac review." 

He did have it, and something more. The flat summit 
of Lookout often two thousand feet wide, extends back 
seventy-five miles. From the bottom of the palisade rocks 



1863] Hooker Carries Lookout Mountain. 363 

which encircle its crest, wooded hills slope to the creek 
and the river. On this foggy morning, while the rest of 
the army was waiting, Hooker made an imposing display 
on the rebel front, marching columns of troops, and open- 
ing with artillery, a's if that were to be his point of attack. 
Meanwhile, he sent far back five brigades, which forded the 
creek, ascended the mountain as far as the palisades, and 
then swept down through the woods in echelon. Their 
right, which hugged the palisades, was in advance of their 
left, so the wedge-shaped column, completely raking the 
whole slope, took the rebels in the rear, capturing many 
and compelling the rest to abandon their works, and liy 
around the "nose" of the mountain. 

Bragg, seeing that it was impossible to hold Lookout, 
and desiring to withdraw his artillery by the road leading 
into the Chattanooga Valley, a mile back from the river, 
attacked Hooker in the evening to cover his retreat, and 
there was skirmishing for several hours. Clouds of fog 
which covered the mountain side, and columns of smoke 
from the artillery and musketry, hid the battle from persons 
in the valley below. They could only see the flashes of 
fire, except when strong winds momentarily lifted the veil. 
This skirmish the imaginative Gene ralMeigs named Hooker's 
" battle above the clouds." 

Grant had spent the dull, drizzling day on Orchard 
Knoll. When he received the welcome intelligence that 
Hooker had carried Lookout, a journalist, just from the 
mountain, reported that the loss did not exceed one hun- 
dred in killed. The General remarked : — 

"He must be mistaken. I am afraid he is a better news- 
paper man than soldier." 

Shortly after came a dispatch from Hooker, stating that 
his casualties were very light. 

"Then," said Grant, "the mountain could not have be. m 
defended by many troops. Bragg must have surmised my 
plan and strengthened his right in front of Sherman. 

These had been two days of preliminary skirmishing. 
The third morning,* opening brightly, showed Bragg' s 

* Wednesday, November twenty-fifth. 



364 Thied Bay— Sherman Fights Stubboenly. [1863. 

forces all drawn in upon Missionary Ridge. Hooker's men, 
climbing to the summit of Lookout, found it deserted, and 
planted the flag there. 

Their general, finding no enemy in his front, moved 
down the east side of Lookout to cross Chattanooga Valley, 
being ordered to reach Rossville Gap, in Missionary Ridge, 
four miles in Bragg' s rear. The rest of the army was to 
delay attacking until he could get into position there. 

'A cloud of witnesses" saw the day's operations from 
the housetops of Chattanooga, the level ground of Thomas 
and Howard, and the hills held by Sherman. From Grant' s 
stand-point, Orchard Knoll, the whole field spread out like a 
map ; and Bragg' s head-quarters, on the summit of Mis- 
sionary Ridge, were distinctly visible The two command- 
ers faced each other, and looked down upon the intervening 
valley, where deadly conflict was to harm irreparably the 
cause of one or the other. 

Sherman was to capture the north end of the Ridge. 
Though fighting stubbornly for hours he was unable to 
carry it. But he threatened Bragg' s depot of supplies at 
Chickamauga Station so seriously, that the rebel commander 
weakened his center to save his right flank and rear. 

The day dragged. Sherman was not making the hoped- 
for progress, nor a word heard from Hooker, who was de- 
layed to build bridges across the Chattanooga, broken by 
the retreating enemy. Grant awaited impatiently the op- 
portune moment for ordering Thomas to charge in the cen- 
ter. 

At last it came. At four p. M. signal- officers from their 
station in the rear reported heavy columns of troops from 
Bragg' s center moving over to his right in front of Sherman. 
Obviously the rebel general had weakened his stronghold ! 
Grant instantly directed an assault upon the Ridge. Corps 
and division generals were standing near him on the knoll, 
but he gave the order only to Thomas, who commanded 
them all. 

Then the chief and his staff turned their glasses toward 
the advancing columns on our extreme left. In an open 
field these suddenly encountered the fire of thousands of 



1863.] The Rebels Roll Down Rocks. 365 

rebel muskets, from a fringe of woods beyond — hesitated, 
and fell back in confusion. The General and his compan- 
ions simultaneously dropped their glasses. 

Grant. — " They seem to be driving our boys." 

Officer. — " Yes." 

Grant. — " Driving them pretty badly." 

Officer. — "Yes." 

The columns rallied, charged, and were again repulsed. 

Grant. — " They are driven again ; but it's all right now. 
You see that signal flag V ' 

Officer. — ' ' Yes. ' ' 

Grant. — "Well, that's Sherman. Sherman is there and 
he'll make it all right." 

A few minutes later Sherman swept forward, charging up 
a steep hill toward a confederate work called Fort Breck- 
inridge. He was soon so near that the enemy could not 
depress his guns enough to reach him. Then the rebels 
began to fling bowlders and roll down huge rocks. 

Granger, commanded the Fourth Corps. He was at the 
battery on Orchard Knoll, in the zeal of an old artillerist, for- 
getting his soldiers, but sighting the guns, and shouting with 
delight when they did good execution. For hours our in- 
fantry had been lying in line just in the rear of their breast- 
works, ready for the expected assault, and Granger's men 
were still waiting. 

Rawlins. — "Why are not those men moving up to 
the rifle-pits? I don't believe they have been ordered 
forward." 

Grant. — "Oh yes, I guess the order has been given. 
General Baircl, why is not your division moving up?" 

Baird. — " We have had no orders to." 

Grant. — "General Thomas, why are not those troops 
advancing V ' 

Thomas.— "I don't know. General Granger has been 
directed to move them forward." 

Grant. — "General Granger, why are your men wait- 
ing?" 

Granger. — " I have had no orders to advance." 

Grant (sharply).—" If you will leave that battery to its 



366 The Grand Charge Begins. t 1863 - 

captain, and take command of your corps, it will be a great 
deal better for all of us." 

Granger, never lacking enthusiasm if there was fighting 
to be done, obeyed promptly, and six cannon-shots, fired 
at intervals of two seconds, gave the preconcerted signal for 
the Union soldiers to advance. Sherman had been unable 
to carry the hill ; but he had done exactly what was wanted 
—compelled Bragg to weaken his force on the Ridge. 

Thomas's men. three lines deep, rose up from their 
trenches, their long array stretching for miles on each side 
in splendid pageant. It looked like a dress parade, and as 
if one might walk on the solid lines of bayonets. Rebel 
prisoners afterward stated that they thought the movement 
only a review. It was "a surprise in open daylight." 

Bands were playing, flags flying, and the soldiers in 
blue cheering and yelling, as they streamed out of their 
works. They poured through the timber, reached the rebel 
skirmishers, then quickening their pace to a run under a 
pelting fire brushed them right back into their rifle-pits at 
the foot of the Ridge, and, almost before the enemy knew 
it, had the stars and stripes floating above the captured 
trenches ! Every part of our long line reached them almost 
at the same moment. The orders had been to carry these 
rifle-pits at all hazards, and then halt for further direc- 
tions. 

Among long, low, flat-roofed log- cabins the level ground 
ended, and the steep Ridge rose up for five hundred yards, 
its face torn and gullied by the waters and melting snows of 
many an April. 

Just before the charge began, Phil. Sheridan, reconnoiter- 
ing in front of his division, saw that the trenches could not 
be held against a reverse fire, and sent back an aide to 
Granger asking what the orders were. In the midst of the 
charge the answer came back : — " Only the front line of rifle- 
pits to be carried." 

But, before it was received our men were already sweep- 
ing up the hill without orders. A glance showing that it 
was impossible to stop them, Granger s aides again dashed 
forward, shouting :— " Take the Ridge if you can; take 



1863.] The Troops Caery the Rifle-pits, 367 

the Ridge if you can." One who was there writes of 
" Little Phil.":— 

" An aide rides up with the order. 'Avery, that flask,' says the general. 
Quietly filling the pewter cup, Sheridan looks up at the battery that frowns 
above him, by Bragg's head-quarters, shakes his cap amid that storm of every 
thing that kills, when you could hardly hold out your hand without catch- 
ing a bullet in it, and, with a ' Ilow-are-you? 1 tosses off the cup. The blue 
battle-flag of the rebels fluttered a response to the cool salute, and the next 
instant the battery let fly its six guns, showering Sheridan with earth. 
Alluding to that compliment with any thing but a blank cartridge, the 
general said to me, in his quiet way, 'I thought it ungenerous! 1 ' 

Then, putting his horse upon the full run, Sheridan was 
again among his men, cheering them forward in the face of 
an appalling tire. 

The rebels were utterly surprised at the irresistible 
charge. A thousand of them fell prostrate, and the na- 
tional troops passed right over them. Others scampered 
up the hill-side, dropping guns and knapsacks, and our 
men chased with ringing yells. They were in no mood to 
stop, while they had the enemy running through a stagger- 
ing tire of grape and musketry poured from the summit. 

Seen from Orchard Knoll, a mile and a half in the rear, 
the advancing line of blue wavered, grew ragged, and 
seemed to melt. Grant's stanchest subordinates were 
alarmed. 

Thomas.—" Those fellows will be all cut to pieces. 
They will never get to the top in the world." 

Grain t.— " Let us see what the boys will do. They are 
not so badly scattered as you think. You see a good deal 
more bare ground between them on that hill-side than 
you would if it were level. We will see directly. The 
boys feel pretty good ; just let them alone." 

Now those in the advance, lay upon their faces by 
thousands, waiting a little for the rest of the line to come 
up. The signal was instantly sent out to right and left 
that the first rifle-pits were taken, and the crest must be 
carried. 

When they started again, Grant unable to remain longer 
in the rear exclaimed : — 



368 And go tip Missionary Ridge. [1863. 

" I am going up there." 

As he and the staff rode forward he directed Rowley : — 

"Major, go back to that signal station, and signal over 
to Sherman that we have taken the lower line of works, and 
are going to take the hill. He must press them quick and 
hard, and keep them from re-enforcing on our front," 

Our soldiers reached the second ritie-pits, clubbed their 
muskets and drove out the remaining rebels in a twinkling. 

The sharp ascent beyond was now ablaze. Benjamin F. 
Taylor, the poet-journalist, pictures the scene ; — 

" They dash out a little way and then slacken ; they creep up, hand over 
hand, loading and firing, and wavering and halting, from the first line of 
works to the second. 

" They hurst into a charge with a cheer and go over it. Sheets of flame 
baptize them ; plunging shot tear away comrades on right and left. It 
is no longer shoulder to shoulder ; it is God for us all. 

"Under tree trunks, among rocks, stumbling over the dead, struggling 
with the living, facing the steady fire of eight thousand infantry poured 
down upon their heads as if it were the old historic curse from heaven, 
they wrestle with the Ridge. Ten, fifteen, twenty minutes go by like a reluc- 
tant century. The hill sways up like a wall before them, at an angle of 
forty-five degrees: but our brave mountaineers are clambering steadily on. 
They seem to be spurning the dull earth under their feet, and going up to do 
Homeric battle with the greater gods. 

"If you look you shall see, too, that these thirteen thousand are not a 
rushing herd of human creatures ; that along the Gothic ridge a row of in- 
verted Vs is slowly moving up almost in line. At the angles is something 
that glitters like a wing — the regimental flag ; and glancing along the front 
you count fifteen of those colors, that were borne at Pea Ridge, waved at 
Pittsburg Landing, glorified at Stone River, riddled at Chickamauga. 

"Up move the banners, now fluttering like a wounded bird, now falter- 
ing, now sinking out of sight. Three times the flag of one regiment goes 
down. Do you know why ? Just there lie three dead color-sergeants. But the 
flag, thank God ! is immortal, and up it comes again, and the Vs move on. 

"The sun is not more than a hand's breadth from the edge of the mount- 
ain. Its level rays bridge the valley from Chattanooga to the Ridge with 
beams of gold. It shines in the rebel faces ; it brings out the national blue ; 
it touches up the flags. Oh, for the voice that could bid that sun to stand 
still! 

" Swarms of bullets sweep the hill. You can count twenty-eight bullets 
in one little tree. The rebels tumble rocks upon the rising line. They light 
the fuses and roll shells down the steep. They load the guns with handfuls 
of cartridges in their haste. 
















jf 






' 









I 



1863.] "HOW DO YOU DO, SOUTHERN CONFEDERACY." 369 

"Just as the sun, weary of the scene, was sinking out of sight, the ad- 
vance surged over the crest with magnificent bursts all along the line, exactly 
as you have seen the crested waves leap up at the breakwater. In a minute 
those flags fluttered along the fringe where fifty rebel guns were kenneled. 
"What colors were the first on the mountain battlement one dare not try to 
say. Bright Honor itself might be proud to bear, nay, to follow the hind- 
most. Foot by foot they had fought up the steep, slippery with much blood; 
let them go to glory together!" 

The enemy had barely time to explode three or four of 
his caissons before national flags fluttered upon the crest, 
and national troops were bayoneting his men in their rifle- 
pits. Sheridan, with the advance, was suddenly flung to 
the ground ; his horse had been shot under him. He sprang 
upon a captured gun, to catch the attention of the crazy 
throng, and ordered immediate pursuit. The rebels had fan- 
cied us in a trap the moment we occupied their lower rifle- 
pits. ]S T ow, utterly bewildered, most of them fled, the Union 
soldiers driving them with unceasin°: veils. One astounded 
confederate, after seeing his comrades swept from the crest, 
and being run over himself by the pursuing throng, rose, 
brushed off the dust, mounted a high rock, and regarding the 
vanishing crowd, asked : — 

" How do you do, Southern Confederacy f 

The health of the "so-called" tacts in a condition to 
cause anxiety. 

On the summit, Quartermaster-General Meigs was load- 
ing and firing upon the retreating foe - Two Parrott guns 
which the rebels had named ' ' Lady Davis ' ' and ' ' Lady 
Breckinridge," while Rawlins, apostrophized the captured 
^pieces : — 

"Turning upon your friends, are you % Well, give them 

! You are doing more good than you ever did in your 

lives before." 

Grant was known personally to few of these troops. 
But just now, riding to post a division, he was recognized 
by one or two men, who passed the word, and in three 
minutes hundreds of soldiers thronged around him, grasping 
his hands, embracing his legs, and shouting : " Now we have 
a general ! "We have paid them up for Chickamauga." 
z 



370 EXD OF THE WONDEBFUL BATTLE. D 8G3 - 

Iii fifty-five minutes after starting on their first charge 
they had swept the crest clean of every rebel, except the 
prisoners. Xobody was more astounded than Bragg. In 
vain did he attempt to form a new line. The rout was so 
wild* that he himself narrowly escaped capture. 
\ Several of the staff were slightly wounded, but the Gen- 
eral who had been under fire all day was unharmed. Direct- 
ing every thing in person, he had fought a wonderful battle. 
It was a game of chess— every movement made at the right 
moment, Grant compelling the enemy to .do what he wished 
almost as invariably as if the rebel army had been un- 
der his command. It was a contiict of brains, and he com- 
pletely out-generaled Bragg. But never was commander 
so well aided by his soldiers. The campaign was his ; 
the charge on Missionary Ridge was "the Privates' Vic- 
tory." 

Sheridan's division had lost in killed and wounded one- 
fifth of its six thousand men, before reaching the crest. But 
Sheridan pushed forward alone and without orders, fighting 
until two in the morning, and capturing hundreds of prison- 
ers. This proved him an officer after Grant' s own heart, and 
was rewarded by an early opportunity to serve the country 
and win a name as the greatest cavalry general of the age. 

Grant modestly telegraphed to Halleck : — 

"Although the battle lasted from early dawn till dark this evening, / 
believe I am not premature in announcing a complete victory over Braya." 

Bragg retreated to Chickamauga Station, burning wag- 
ons, caissons, pontoons, and enormous quantities of corn. 
He telegraphed to Richmond this mild statement of his ill- 
fortune : — 



\ 



/ 



* " Though greatly outnumbered, such was the strength of our position that no 
doubt was entertained of our ability to hold it. * * * A panic, which I had never 
before witnessed, seemed to have seized upon officers and men. and each seemed to 
be struggling for his personal safety, regardless of his duty or his character. * * * 
Xo satisfactory excuse can possibly be given for the shameful conduct of our 
troops. * * * * Those [Union soldiers] who reached the ridge did so in a condition 
of exhaustion, from the great physical exertion in climbing, which rendered them 
powerless, and the slightest effort would have destroyed them." — Bragg s Official 
Report 



1863 -1 Bragg Retreats ixto Georgia. 371 

./ 

"After several unsuccessful assaults on our lines to-day, the enemy car- 
ried the left center about four o'clock. The whole left soon gave -.v.. 
considerable disorder. The right maintained its ground, and repelled every 
> k attack. I am withdrawing all to this point." 

After heavy skirmishing with Hooker he soon fell back 
into Georgia. 

The respective official reports thus summed up the 
losses : — 



KILLED. 


WOUXDED. 


MISSING. 


TOTAL. 


Grant — 757 


4529 


330 


5616 


Bragg— 361 


2180 


4146 


6687 



Bragg' s fortifications and strongholds made his killed 
and wounded less than ours. He greatly understated his 
missing, for Grant was compelled to issue rations for up- 
ward of six thousand prisoners. 

The entire Union force was a little more than sixty thou- 
sand ; that of the rebels about forty-five thousand, with in- 
comparable advantages of position. The charge on Mission- 
ary Kidge was less perilou sthan it seemed. Bragg had left 
only a weak force there, and even that was a good deal de- 
moralized. Still few generals would have had the temerity 
to order the daring assault. Fewer would have managed 
by such skillful dispositions to weaken the seemingly invul- 
nerable center of the foe, and then detected the moment for 
profiting by it with unerring accuracy. 

A brave young Irish colonel, who during Van Dorn's 
raid, a year earlier, had defended his post north of Holly 
Springs with such marked and successful valor that Grant 
publicly thanked him, was among the killed. The General 
on hearing of it rode down to the landing and had the coffin 
opened that he might take a final look at the remains of 
the faithful soldier. 

Sherman was now ordered to the relief of Knoxville, 
and Grant addressed a dispatch to Burnside in duplicate : — 

"Do not be forced into a surrender by short rations. Take all the citi- 
zens have to enable you to hold out a few days longer. * * * There 
are now three columns in motion for your relief. * * TL - 

will be able to crush Longstreet's force, or drive them from the valley, and 
must be within twenty-four hours' march of you, by the time this reaches 
you." 



372 LoXGSTEEET IS DEFEATED AT KXOXVILLE. [1863. 

He directed that one copy be forwarded to Burnside at 
the earliest possible moment, and the other allowed to fall 
into the hands of the rebels, as the truth just then was ex- 
actlv what he wished them to know. 

Longstreet, hearing of Bragg' s defeat, finally attacked 
the Knoxville fortifications,* his infantry charging at a full 
run. It reached the ditch, but was checked with o-reat 
slaughter while climbing the first parapet. Only one con- 
federate got over alive, and five hundred, unable to retreat, 
surrendered themselves. The garrison lost only thirteen 
men. the assailants about one thousand. 

Burnside, who had borne himself in his difficult position 
with great sagacity and pluck, received Grant's dispatch 
by a scout, who brought it inserted in a hollow half eagle. 
Before the prompt Sherman could arrive, Longstreet had 
retreated toward Virginia. 

President Lincoln, on learning the result of the brilliant 
campaign, recommended a national thanksgiving, and tele- 
graphed to Grant with unusual warmth : — 

'•Understanding that your lodgment at Chattanooga and at Knoxville is 
now secure, I wish to tender yon, and all under your command, my more 
than thanks — my profoundest gratitude — for the skill, courage, and perse- 
verance with which you and they, over so great difficulties, have effected 
that important object ! God bless you all!" 

Halleck pronounced Chattanooga ' ' the most remarkable 
battle of history." Grant wrote of it to a friend :— 

" I presume a battle never took place on so large a scale where so much 
of it could be seen, or where every move proved so successful." 

The army and the country were more than satisfied, and 
named our General, as the Mamalukes named Napoleon, 
"The Favorite of Victory." 

* Xovember twenty-ninth. 



1864.] a Mountain Ride in Winter. 373 



CHAPTER XXXI. 



LIEUTEXANT-GEXERAL. 



Grant made a new request for permission to undertake 
the capture of Mobile, and met with a new denial. He then 
established his head-quarters at Nashville, in a large brick 
dwelling whose rebel owner had fled southward. 

He visited Knoxville to look after the little Union army 
there, and afterward, though it was mid-winter, rode on 
horseback through Cumberland Gap, which had been re- 
peatedly lost and won during the war, and through which 
supplies were now hauled for our troops in East Tennessee. 
The thermometer indicated ten degrees below zero ; and 
though he was still exceedingly lame, deep snows, and 
long stretches of ice on steep hill- sides compelled him 
to walk and lead his horse for many miles of the severe 
journey. 

After emerging from the mountains, he was received 
with enthusiasm by the Union people of Lexington and 
Louisville, and he reached XashvUle again on the thirteenth 
of January. McPherson and Sherman were playing havoc 
with the enemy's communications and supplies in Missis- 
sippi, and through the greater part of Grant's military divi- 
sion a national officer in uniform could ride alone witli 
safety. 

Politicians beset him more than ever, but found him an 
unpromising subject. He said : — 

" I never aspired to but one office in my life. I should 
like to be mayor of Galena — to build a new sidewalk from 
my house to the depot." 

But when Isaac IS". Morris, of Illinois— son of the Ohio 
senator who had caused his appointment to the Military 
Academy a quarter of a century before — inquired whether 



374 A Letter about the Presidency. [1864. 

lie would permit the use of his name for the Presidency, 
under any circumstances, he responded : — * 

" Your letter of the twenty-ninth of December I did not see until two days 
ago. I receive many such, hut do not answer. Yours, however, is written 
in such a kindly spirit, and as you ask for an answer confidentially, I will 
not withhold it. 

" Allow me to say, however, that I am not a politician, never was, and I 
hope never to he, and could not write a political letter. My only desire is to 
serve the country in her present trials. To do this efficiently it is necessary 
to have the confidence of the army and the people. I know no way to better 
secure this end than by a faithful performance of my duties. 

" So long as I hold my present position, I do not believe I have the right 
to criticise the policy or orders of those above me, or to give utterance to 
views of my own, except to the authorities at Washington, and the general- 
in-chief of the army. In this respect I know I have proven myself a good 
soldier. 

" In your letter you say that I have it in my power to be the next Presi- 
dent. This is the last thing in the world I desire. I would regard such a 
consummation, as highly unfortunate for myself, if not for the country. 
Through Providence I have attained to more than I ever hoped, and, with 
the position I now hold in the regular army, if allowed to retain it, will be 
more than satisfied. 

"I certainly shall never state a sentiment, or the expression of a thought 
with the view to being a candidate for office. I scarcely know the induce- 
ment that could be held out to me to accept office, and unhesitatingly say 
that I infinitely prefer my present position to that of any civil office within 
the gift of the people. 

" This is a private letter to you, and not intended for others to see, or 
read, because I want to avoid being heard from by the public except through 
my acts, in the performance of my legitimate duties." 

Sherman, always a little haunted by regrets that Grant 
was not a book-soldier, observed to some acquaintances : — 

' ' The General is not a man of remarkable learning, but 
he is one of the bravest I ever saw. I do not say he is a 
hero — I do not believe in heroes ; but I know he is a gentle- 
man, and a good man." 

On the other hand Grant remarked of his friend : — 

"I always find it the best way to turn Sherman out 
like a young colt, and let him kick up his heels. I 
have great confidence that he will come in all right in due 
time." 

* January twentieth. 



1864.] The General Visits St. Louis. 375 

The General's military wishes were now treated as law 
by the Government and the country. "Golden Honor 
showered all her stars." The legislatures of the great 
States of New York and Ohio voted him their enthu- 
siastic thanks ; and Congress complimented him with a 
gold medal in the name of the people of the United States. 
One side bore his laureled profile ; the other, a figure of 
Fame, bearing a scroll inscribed with a list of his victories, 
and the motto: — " Proclaim liberty throughout the land." 
Gifts poured in from all quarters, but the one he seemed to 
prize most was a brier- wood cigar-case from a Lookout 
Mountain tree whittled out and presented by a soldier with- 
out hope or desire of any return. 

Fred, was with the family of Grant' s old partner, prostrate 
from lingering pneumonia and dysentery, contracted in the 
Vicksburg campaign. On receiving a dispatch that his 
condition was alarming, the father — first obtaining leave 
from Washington — visited St. Louis, but happily found him 
out of danger. 

The next evening, with his family and Mrs. Boggs, Grant 
witnessed a representation of "Richelieu," at the St. Louis 
Theater, the party riding down town in a democratic street 
car. They occupied a private box, the General sitting back 
out of sight. At the close of the first act the audience 
shouted : — " Grant ! Grant ! Get up." 

He came forward, bowed uneasily, and abruptly re- 
turned to his seat. This only provoked new cries, which 
would not be silenced until he moved his chair to the front 
of the box. Then there were lusty cheers and vain calls 
for a speech. 

Leading citizens and soldiers gave him a public din- 
ner, " to meet old acquaintances and form new ones." The 
spacious dining-hall of the Lindell House* was crowded with 
gentlemen eager to honor the soldier whom, a few years 
before, many had known as a farmer hauling wood, or an 
agent collecting rents. Rosecrans, Schofield, Fisk, and other 
generals, and also his white-haired father-in-law, sat near 

* The largest hotel in the world— since burned. 



376 Declines to Make any Speeches. [1864. 

Mm. At the toast "To our distinguished guest," the "band 
played " Hail to the Chief!" There were enthusiastic 
huzzas as Grant arose and said : — 

"Gentlemen: In response, it will be impossible forme 
to do more than thank you." 

. The festivity passed off pleasantly, though the ladies, in 
brilliant array, looking on from an adjoining parlor, were 
with it, but not of it ; for even Americans are not yet civil- 
ized enough to admit women to public dinners. 

At its close, the neighboring streets, bright with bonfires 
and rockets, were densely thronged ; and notwithstanding 
persistent denials, the crowd continued to beg for oratory. 

A Bystander. — "General, do make them a little speech." 

Grant. — " I can't," 

Bystander. — "Then tell them you can't." 

Grant. — " Oh ! they know that already." 

But still they shouted until he appeared on the hotel 
balcony, cigar in hand, and replied : — 

"Gentlemen: Making speeches is not my business. I 
never did it in my life, and never will. I thank you, how- 
ever, for your attendance here." 

The city council — in amusing contrast to the action of 
the county commissioners five years before — thanked him, 
in a series of resolutions, for his "mighty successes in be- 
half of the Government." 

He remained at the residence of his former partner two or 
three weeks, visited by many friends and strangers, whom 
he received with old-time modesty and cordiality. 

" I used to have a good deal of Southern feeling against 
the Republicans," he said, in reply to a question, "but 
now I know of only two parties, and I am for the party of 
the Union." 

One day, after his return to Nashville, his chief-of-engi- 
neers was walking to and fro at head-quarters, absorbed in 
thought : — 

Meigs. — " Baldy Smith seems to be studying strat- 
egy.'' 

Grant.— "I don't believe in strategy, in the popular 
understanding of the term. I believe in getting up just as 



1364.] His Views on Strategy. 377 

close to the enemy, and with just as little loss of life, as 
possible." 

Meigs.— " What then ?" 

Grant. — "Why then, 'Up guards, and at them.' " 

Nearly all our other generals, in their campaigns, had 
exhibited some glaring weakness of their own. Grant had 
invariably found and profited by some glaring weakness of 
his adversary. While he had practically ended the war in 
the West, the Army of the Potomac — the largest and most 
important of our armies — had encountered little but failure 
and disaster. After three years of terrible conflict, rebel 
banners still floated defiantly almost at the gates of the 
national capital. 

The Northern people were utterly absorbed in the war. 
They cared nothing for antecedents. Men hitherto unpopu- 
lar, were now trusted and honored. Standing firm by the 
Union was sufficient to condone all old offenses, political or 
moral. Those, even, who had committed crimes were for- 
given, and afforded opportunity to win honorable distinc- 
tion in leading regiments and brigades, divisions and army 
corps. There was no past which the country would not 
pardon to all who were true in its present sore need. 

It presented the strange spectacle of patriots twice as 
numerous and twice as rich as their foes, waiting, dying for 
a leader — ready to lay all their magnificent resources, their 
treasures of life and of property, at the feet of any man who 
could so use them as to bring decisive victory. 

All eyes were looking toward our General. In the 
Senate, Howe, of Wisconsin, had already offered an im- 
practicable but significant resolution, instructing the Presi- 
dent to call out a million of new volunteers, for a few 
months, and place Grant in command of all the Union 
armies, with power to choose his own subordinates. In the 
House, Washburne introduced a bill reviving the grade of 
lieutenant-general, and authorizing the Executive to confer 
it upon some officer 

" not below the grade of major-general, most distinguished for courage, skill, 
and ability ; and who * * * shall be authorized, under the direction of the 
President, to command the armies of the United States." 



378 The Grade of Lieutenant-General. [is64 

This high rank was originally created for Washington, 
in 1798, in anticipation of a war with France. When he died, 
it was discontinued. Several years after the close of the 
Mexican war it was conferred by brevet on Winfield Scott. 
No other Americans had ever held it. 

Long discussions followed, a few members urging post- 
ponement until the close of the conflict, on the grounds that 
the war might yet develop some new general who would 
deserve the rank more than Grant, and that it would also 
be hazardous to call him from the field to office duty. But 
many more supported the measure. Washburne said : — 

" I am not here to speak for General Grant. No man, with his consent, 
has ever mentioned his name in connection with any position. * * * Every 
promotion he has received since lie first entered the service to put down this 
rebellion, was moved without his knowledge or consent ; and in regard to 
this very matter of lieutenant-general, after the bill was introduced and his 
name mentioned in connection therewith, he wrote me and admonished me that 
he had been highly honored already by the Government, and did not ask or 
deserve any thing more in the shape of honors or promotion ; and that a 
success over the enemy was what he craved above every thing else." 

With pardonable pride he alluded to his early and 
almost solitary support of the Coming Man : — 

"I now appeal to history for my justification, and ask if Grant has not 
far transcended every thing that I claimed for him. * * * Why necessary 
to recount that long list of victories from Belmont to Lookout Mountain? 
Look at what this man has done for his country, for humanity and civiliza- 
sion— this modest and unpretending general whom gentlemen appear to be 
so much afraid of. He has fought more battles and won more victories than 
any man living; he has captured more prisoners and taken more guns than 
any general of modern times.'" 

The House passed the bill, ninety-six to forty-one. In 
the upper branch of Congress there was still more debate. 
Several senators expressed fears that the President might 
appoint some one else beside Grant. Saulsbury, of Dela- 
ware, alleged that his opposition to the measure was 

' k For this simple reason, that in my capacity as a senator I will have 
nothing to do with President-making." 

Howaed, of Michigan.—" Give us, sir, a live general; give us some man 
who has talent, who has character and force enough within him to give a 



1864.] Views of Leading Senators. 379 

successful direction to the enthusiasm of the armies of the United States, and 
who will, if properly supported here, give us victory even upon the Rappa- 
hannock, and not let us he draggling along under the influences such as have 
presided over the Army of the Potomac for these last many tedious <nt<l ,r,,,r>i 
months — an army oscillating alternately between the Rappahannock and the 
Potomac, defeated to-day and hardly successful to-morrow, with its comman- 
ders changed almost as frequently as the moon changes its face. Sir, for one 
I am tired of this; and I tell you, and I tell senators here, that the country 
is getting weary of it." 

Doolittle, of Wisconsin. — ' ; Grant has won seventeen battles, he has cap- 
tured one hundred thousand prisoners, he has taken five hundred pieces of 
artillery, and innumerable thousands of small-arms on all these fields, lie 
has organized victory from the beginning, and I want him in a position 
where he can organize final victory and bring it to our armies and put an end 
to this rebellion." 

Grimes, of Iowa. — " I am the last man who would pluck a single leaf from 
the victor's chaplet that adorns General Grant's brow. But if I comprehend 
the character of that man, he is a man for action, for field service, for active 
duty, and not a man for the council chamber. * * * I am very well sat- 
isfied that a man can perform the duties of commanding an army just as well 
with the rank of major-general as with the rank of lieutenant-general. 1 be- 
lieve that the pay of six thousand dollars, which General Grant now receives, 
is adequate to the rank and to the position which he holds, and that it is not 
necessary for me to assist in running the hands of Congress into the national 
treasury, for the purpose of giving him between thirteen and fourteen thou- 
sand dollars a year." 

Sherman, of Ohio. — u I only know that the Army of the Potomac is now 
where it was two years ago : not through any lack of courage in the brave 
men who are fighting in that army; but for some reason, they have not won 
the honors of this war. But General Grant and the armies under his com- 
mand have won those honors; and I think we should all, frankly and gen- 
erously, by a unanimous vote, tender them." 

Hale, of New Hampshire. — "Let the people get a suspicion that, from 
any motives, the due tribute to the gallantry and self-sacrifice, and the great 
victories which General Grant has won is withheld, that there has been a 
feeling in favor of withholding from him the due reward of his merit and the 
prompt and generous acknowledgment of it — let that go abroad, and I tell 
you, sir, the people will put it right; they will rally, and they will not Btop 
until, over the Senate, and over Congress, they have rendered the highest 
honors in their power to General Grant. * * * What made General 
Jackson President of the United States? What made General Taylor Presi- 
dent of the United States ?" 

Wilson, of Massachusetts. — " Has not General Grant rendered tran- 
scendent services to the country ? He has fought seventeen battles 
for the republic, and won them all ; he has taken more prisoners and 



380 Lincoln Sends for Grant's Friend. D 

more cannon than ever Washington or Scott saw on all their battle- 
fields." 

Fessenden, of Maine. — " I believe that he is a man of high moral quali- 
ties; that he not only has physical courage, but moral courage : tlmt if he 
had been at Antietam he would have followed the retreating army at ona and 
demolished it; that if he had been at Gettysburg, the army of Lee never icon hi 
have crossed the river, because he would not have consulted those about him, 
and agreed with them contrary to his own opinion; he would have acted, he 
would have taken the responsibility." 

G-arret Davis, of Kentucky. — " General Grant has not achieved his 
whole work. He is about to enter upon a field of operations comparatively 
new to him, and what will be the amount and measure of his success Dobody 
can conjecture. I believe that it will be attended with success, and probably 
with signal success ; but I do not feel enough assurance of those results to 
create for him the high office of lieutenant-general, which, in my judgment, 
ought to be instituted only after the war is over, and then as a reward to 
crown the services and the genius of the best general that has appeared in 
the course of the war." 

The Senate passed the bill, with only six dissenting 
voices. The President nsed no influence either for or 
against it ; but, when it was a foregone conclusion, 
said : — 

" I have never seen Grant. Before I appoint him to the 
command of the armies, I want to learn all about him. 
Who of his friends knows him best?" 

Washburne suggested Russell Jones, United States mar- 
shal for Illinois, and an acquaintance of Lincoln. Jones 
was thereupon summoned to the capital. A few weeks 
earlier he had written Grant, asking his views about the 
Presidency, for which many journals were urging him. On 
his way to the station, he called at the Chicago post-office 
for his mail, and received a letter in reply. Reaching Wash- 
ington, he reported himself at the White House, and the 
chief magistrate asked him many questions. 

Jones. — "Mr. President, perhaps you would like to 
know whether Grant is going to be a candidate for the 
Presidency." 

Lincoln.— " I confess I have a little curiosity on that 

point." 

Jones.— " Well, I have just received a reply from him 
to my questions on the subject. It is a private letter, but I 






!8C4.] "This Peesidential Grub." 381 

see no impropriety in showing it to you, and it will be 
more satisfactory than any thing I could tell you." 

The President read the letter. In it Grant said, that 
nothing was further from his wishes than that high office ; 
and that, even if he had been ambitious for it, he would 
not then permit his name to be used, but was for Abraham 
Lincoln above all men, and under all circumstances. The 
Commander-in-Chief was much gratified. He said : — 

" I wanted to know; for when this Presidential grub 
once gets to gnawing at a man, nobody can tell how far 
in it lias got. It is generally a good deal deeper than he 
himself supposes." 

Jones left the letter with Lincoln. It is believed to be 
still among his papers, sealed up in a vault, at Blooming- 
ton, Illinois, and not to be opened for the present. 

The bill being passed, and Grant appointed and con- 
firmed lieutenant-general, Halleck telegraphed, requesting 
him to report to the War Department in person. 

Two months earlier Sherman had said in a letter to 
Grant : — 

" You occupy a position of more power than Halleck or the President. 
* * * Do as you have heretofore done, preserve a plain military character, 
and, let others maneuver as they will, you will beat them not only in fame, 
but in doing good in the closing scenes of this war, when somebody must 
heal and mend up the breaches made by the war." 

Now, on the evening before starting for Washington, 
the General wrote* to Sherman and McPherson — addressing 
it to the former — a peculiarly warm and generous letter : — 

"Dear General: — The bill reviving the grade of lieutenant-general in 
the army has become a law, and my name has been sent to the Senate for 
the place. I now receive orders to report to Washington immediately in 
person, which indicates a confirmation, or a likelihood of confirmation. I 
start in the morning to comply with the order. 

" Whilst I have been eminently successful in this war, in at least gaining 
the confidence of the public, no one feels more than I how much of this 
success is due to the energy, skill, and the harmonious putting forth of that 
energy and skill, of those whom it has been my good fortune to have occupy- 
ing subordinate positions under me. 

* March fifth. 



382 Letter to Sherman and McPherson. [ise*. 

"There are many officers to whom these remarks are applicable, to a 
greater or less degree proportionate to their ability as soldiers; but what I 
want, is, to express my thanks to you and McPherson, as the men to whom 
above all others I feel indebted for whatever I have had of success. How 
far your advice and assistance have been of help to me you know. How far 
your execution of whatever has been given to you to do, entitles you to the 
reward I am receiving, you can not know as well as I. 

" I feel all the gratitude this letter would express, giving it the most 
flattering construction. The word you I use in the plural, intending it for 
McPherson also. I should write to him, and will some day. But starting 
in the morning, I do not know that I will find time just now." 

Sherman replied from near Memphis : — * 

"Dear General: — I have your more than kind and characteristic letter 
of the fourth instant. I will send a copy to General McPherson at once. 

"You do yourself injustice, and us too much honor, in assigning to us 
too large a share of merits which have led to your high advancement. I 
know you approved the friendship I have ever professed to you, and will 
permit me to continue as heretofore to manifest it on all proper occasions. 

"You are now Washington's legitimate successor, and occupy a position 
of almost dangerous elevation. Bnt if you can continue, as heretofore, to 
be yourself— simple, honest, and unpretending — you will enjoy through life the 
respect and love of friends, and the homage of millions of human beings, 
that will award you a large share in securing to them and their descendants 
a government of law and stability. 

" I repeat, you do General McPherson and myself too much honor. At 
Belmont you manifested your traits neither of us being near. At Donelson 
also you illustrated your whole character. I was not near, and General 
McPherson in too subordinate a capacity to influence you. 

"Until you had won Donelson, I confess I was almost cowed by the 
terrible array of anarchical elements that presented themselves at every 
point; but that admitted a ray of light I have followed since. 

"I believe you are as brave, patriotic, and just, as the great prototype, 
Washington — as unselfish, kind-hearted, and honest, as a man should be. But 
the chief characteristic is the simple faith in success you have always mani- 
fested, which I can liken to nothing else than the faith of a Christian has 
in the Saviour. 

"This faith gave you victory at Shiloh, and Vicksburg also. When you 
have completed your best preparations you go into battle without hesitation 
as at Chattanooga — no doubts, no reserves; and I tell you it was this that 
made us act with confidence. I knew wherever I was that you thought of 
me, and if I got in a tight place you would help me out of it alive. 

"My only point of doubt was, in your knowledge of grand strategy, and 

* March sixteenth. 



1864.] Sherman Sends a Reply. 383 

of books of science and history ; but I confess your common sense seems to 
have supplied all these. 

" Now, as to the future. Don't stay in Washington. Come West. Take 
to yourself the whole Mississippi valley. Let us make it dead sure, — and I 
tell you the Atlantic slopes and Pacific shores will follow its destiny, as sure 
as the limbs of a tree live or die with the main trunk. We have done much ; 
but still much remains ; and time's influences are with us, we could almost 
afford to sit still and let these influences work. 

" Here lies the seat of the coming empire, and from the west, when our 
task is done, we will make short work of Charleston and Richmond, and 
the impoverished coast of the Atlantic." 

Grant started eastward, accompanied by Rawlins and 
Duff of the staff. He traveled by special trains, but the 
people learning of his approach thronged to the stations. 
At Baltimore, a dense crowd gave him welcome. He shook 
hands with all whom he could not escape, but said to some 
who began to talk of politics : — 

" Beyond all things I am determined to avoid political 
demonstrations. My business is with war while it exists. 
When the rebellion is put down, as it shortly will be, it 
may be a time for partisanship.' 1 

At five p. M., on the eighth of March, he reached Wash- 
ington, where he had never before spent more than a single 
day. After a hasty toilet, he entered the long dining-hall 
at Willard's, and sat down to dinner. A gentleman near 
by asked his neighbor : — 

"Who is that major-general ?" 

" Why that is Lieutenant-General Grant." 

The news flew from table to table. Up-sprang and out- 
spoke a Pennsjdvania member of Congress : — 

" Ladies and Gentlemen : The hero of Donelson, of 
Vicksburg, and of Chattanooga is among us. I propose the 
health of Lieutenant-General Grant." 

Five hundred guests of both sexes were instantly on 
their feet, cheering, huzzaing, waving handkerchiefs and 
napkins, and a few enthusiasts dancing wildly, in reckless 
disregard o«f chairs, toes, and crockery. With evident em- 
barrassment Grant bowed, shook hands with those who 
crowded around him, and then attempted to return to his 
muttons. But in vain. He could not take his meal in peace, 



384 Grant's Reception in Washington. L 18G4 - 

and finally retired abashed before the crowd of loquacious 
men, and showily-dressed women. 

Late that evening he attended the President's reception. 
Lincoln, Seward, and Senator Wilson were standing in the 
Blue Room, surrounded by guests, when Cameron brought 
in Grant. The two men who had come from humble life in 
the West, one to lead the nation and the other the army, 
scanned each other curiously as they shook hands for the 
first time. 

After a little conversation the party repaired to the great 
East Room. There the throng of curious visitors made a 
rush for the General, fairly driving him to the wall. Seward 
pulled him upon a sofa, where he bowed his blushing ac- 
knowledgments. He afterward characterized this recep- 
tion as the hottest campaign he ever fought. He made the 
tour of the room with Mrs. Lincoln, and at an early hour 
returned to his hotel. 

The next day the President, attended by his private sec- 
retaries and cabinet, and Halleck and Owen Lovejoy, re- 
ceived him formally. Grant was accompanied only by 
Rawlins and Comstock of his staff, and his little son Fred. 
Lincoln greeted him cordially, presented him to the by- 
standers, and then read the following : — 

" General Grant — The nation's appreciation of what yon have done? 
and its reliance upon you for what remains to he done in the existing great 
struggle, are now presented with this commission, constituting you Lieu- 
tenant-General in the Army of the United States. With this high honor 
devolves upon you also a corresponding responsibility. As the country 
herein trusts you, so, under God, it will sustain you. I scarcely need to add, 
that with what I here speak for the nation, goes my own hearty personal con- 
currence." 

Grant also read his reply, written the evening before, in 
a public room of the hotel : — 

" aTr. President — I accept the commission, with gratitude for the high 
honor conferred. With the aid of the noble armies that have fought on so 
many fields for our common country, it will be my earnest endeavor not to 
disappoint your expectations. I feel the full weight of the responsibilities 
now devolving on me ; and I know that if they are met, it will be due to 
those armies, and, above all, to the favor of that Providence which leads 
both nations and men." 



1864.] Visits the Army of the Potomac. 385 

Half an hour's conversation ended the simple interview. 

The General next visited the army of the Potomac, where 
Meade, glad to have the weighty responsibility removed 
from his own shoulders, welcomed him heartily. The corps 
and division generals calling to pay their respects, also 
greeted cordially the modest Western commander. 

Before coming East, Grant had urged strenuously upon 
the Government the adoption of a new policy — perfect co- 
operation in time and purpose between all our armies, from 
the coast to the Rocky Mountains, and the striking of heavy 
blows simultaneously along the entire line, that the enemy 
might not be able to weaken one point to strengthen an- 
other. He had recommended the appointment of Sherman 
or W. F. Smith to the command of the Army of the Poto- 
mac, and had started for Washington, intending to keep 
his own head-quarters in the "West, and return there shortly 
to lead a column from Chattanooga to the Atlantic. 

But now, on seeing the Eastern army for himself, he 
found that there was some prejudice against Smith, and 
that the appointment of a purely Western general like 
Sherman would excite sectional jealousy. The same objection 
existed to his assuming command. Meade, a native of Spain, 
but educated at West Point, was in most respects an excel- 
lent soldier, and enjoyed a good degree of popularity; so 
Grant decided to retain him under his own general direc- 
tion. In view of the old bitter jealousies of that gallant 
but unfortunate army, this was undoubtedly the wiser 
mode ; it left the General actually, but not nominally, in 
charge. Here was to be the crucial test. Here was a post 
which had proved the grave of many promising military 
reputations. Said Grant to a friend : — 

"If I had taken command of this army two years ago, 
I should have been very likely to fail ; but now I have had 
so much experience as colonel, brigadier-general, and major- 
general, that I feel entire confidence in myself. McClellan's 
lack of that was a great cause of his failure ; and any man 
would have lacked it under the circumstances." 

On the evening of March eleventh, after a consultation 
with the President and Secretary of War, Grant was ready 

AA 



386 Enough of the Show Business." [i864. 

to start West, when lie received an invitation from Mrs. 
Lincoln to a military dinner at the White House, given in 
his honor. Twelve other prominent generals were also to 
be present. He replied that he trusted she would excuse 
him, as he must return immediately to Nashville. 

Lincoln. — "I don't see how we can excuse you. It 
would be Hamlet with the Prince left out." 

Grant. — "I appreciate fully the honor Mrs. Lincoln 
would dome ; but time is precious ; and— really — Mr. Pres- 
ident, I have had enough of the show business" 

The dinner was given, but the Lieutenant-Gfeneral did 
not wait for it. He reached Cincinnati on a Sunday morn- 
ing. His father had sent a carriage to the station for him, 
and stood waiting at his gate for its return, when up walked 
the General, carpet-sack in hand, and wearing a plain army 
overcoat. The driver had failed to find him. 

On Monday morning he started for Nashville, where he 
found an order from the War Department, formally assign- 
ing him to the command of all the forces of the United States, 
with head-quarters in the field. Halleck was to continue 
at Washington as chief of staff of the armies under him ; 
Sherman to succeed him in command of the Military Divi- 
sion of the Mississippi, and McPherson to take Sherman' s 
place at the head of the Army and the Department of the 
Tennessee. Grant had lifted up his lieutenants with him. 

On the way East again, Sherman, summoned by tele- 
graph, accompanied him from Nashville to Cincinnati for 
conference. He spent part of another day at his father' s, 
where there were several visitors. Something being said 
about generals who had " failed," one of those little 
pitchers which have long ears, asked : — 

"What is it to fail?" 

4 ' Well, my son," replied the Lieutenant- General, ' ' when 
you try to get a boy down, and can't — that's to fail." 

" I suppose now," said Jesse, "it's 'on to Kichmond.' " 

"No ; on to Lee's army." 

"But how?" 

A puff from the cigar and a shrug of the shoulders were 
the only answer. 



1364.] The General begins his Task. 387 



CHAPTER XXXII. 



WILDERNESS. 



On tlie twenty-third of March the Lieutenant- General 
reached Washington, accompanied "by Mrs. Grant and the 
children, and by Rawlins, Bowers, Duff, Rowley, Leet, 
Parker, and Badeau, of his military family. 

The next day he began to reorganize the army for the 
summer campaign. It was a long task, but, fortunately, 
he had not risen to the chief command until after sorest 
trials had educated the country into patient trust in its 
leaders. Few other generals had so fully deserved this 
trust. Grant never complained, he never once asked for 
re-enforcements, but always did cheerfully the best he could 
with whatever the Government saw fit to give him. 

Some Western soldiers, proud of their unvarying suc- 
cesses, claimed superiority over their Eastern brethren. The 
latter were wont to reply : — 

"The Western armies have never fought against the 
best rebel troops or the ablest generals. Let them face 
Lee a while and they would sing another song." 

The General himself said : — 

"The Army of the Potomac is a very fine one, and lias 
shown the highest courage. Still, I think it has never 
fought its battles through." 

He did not mean to have it continue open to that criti- 
cism. He was preparing it for work. He suppressed three 
reduced corps, consolidating them with larger ones ; and 
sent away to other fields half a dozen subordinate generals, 
in whom Meade lacked confidence — a proceeding which 
Stanton termed "the slaughter of the innocents." 

A party of ladies asked Mrs. Grant's opinion of her hus- 
band' s new responsibilities and prospects. 



388 "Mr. Grant an Obstinate Man." t 1864 - 

"Mr. Grant lias succeeded, thus far," she answered, 
"wherever the Government has placed him ; and he will do 
the best he can." 

"Do you think he will capture Richmond?" 

" Yes, before he gets through. Mr. Grant always was 
a very obstinate man." 

To take the rebel capital — that had been the supreme 
desire of three blood-stained years. A gentleman, wishing 
to enter the enemy's lines on business, asked the President 
for a pass to Richmond. 

" I should be glad to oblige you," replied Father Abra- 
ham, "but my permits are not respected. I have given a 
quarter of a million of men passes to Richmond, and not 
one has ever got there, except as a prisoner of war." 

In a letter* to Senator Henry Wilson, asking the confir- 
mation of his chief-of- staff as a brigadier-general, Grant 
said : — 

" General Rawlins lias served with me from the beginning of the rebel- 
lion. I know he has most richly earned his present position. He comes 
the nearest being indispensable to me of an)' officer in the service. But if 
his confirmation is dependent on his commanding troops, he shall command 
troops at once. There is no department commander, near where he has 
served, that would not most gladly give him the very largest and most re- 
sponsible command his rank would entitle him to. * * * If he fails to 
be confirmed, beside the loss it will be to the service and to me personally, 
I shall feel that, by keeping with me a valuable officer, because he made 
himself valuable, I have worked him an injury." 

He wrote to Sherman the same day : — 

" You I propose to move against Johnston's army, to break it up, and go 
into the interior of the enemy's country as far as you can, inflicting all the 
damage you can against their war resources. I don 1 1 propose to lay down for 
you a plan of the campaign, but simply to lay down the routes desirable, 
and to leave you free to execute in your own way. Submit to me, however, 
as early as you can, your plan of operations. 1 ' 

He visited Butler, who was at Fortress Monroe, com- 
manding the Army of the James. It was their first meet- 
ing. Grant, who had kept his plan a secret, began to de- 
tail it, when Butler interrupted : — 

* April fourth. 



1864.] NOETHEEN PEACE PAETY GEOWING. 380 

" Stop, General, please, and let me tell yon what /think 
yon are going to do." 

Referring to a map upon the wall, he pointed out with 
minnteness, and, as it afterwards proved, with great accu- 
racy, what he surmised the movements would be. Grant 
returned to Washington with a good deal of respect for 
Butler's clear-headedness and capacity. 

Success had become a necessity. The anti-war senti- 
ment in the [North, no longer awed into silence, was grow- 
ing outspoken and defiant. In Congress, Alexander Long, 
a representative from Ohio, advocated the recognition of the 
Southern confederacy in an elaborate argument.* Speaker 
Colfax moved his expulsion, on the charge of having vio- 
lated his official oath, and given aid and comfort to the 
enemy. Several democratic members partially defended 
Long, and Harris, of Maryland, said : — 

"I am a peace man, — for peace, by the recognition of 
the Southern confederacy. Laugh as you may, you have 
got to come to that!" 

The House censured both Long and Harris as "un- 
worthy members," but could not muster a two-thirds vote 
to expel them. Southern newspapers heralded this as 
evidence that the North was weary of the conflict. 

But as a counterpoise, five noble Northwestern States- 
Ohio, Illinois, Iowa, Wisconsin, and Indiana— true to the 
Ordinance of Eighty-seven which secured them to freedom— 
voluntarily furnished the Government with eighty-five thou- 
sand men without bounties. They did garrison duty for 
ninety days, enabling all the veterans to go to the front. 
Many leading and wealthy citizens carried muskets in this 
honorable service. 

One day the President asked the General :— 
" What do you think of our prospects?" 
Grant began to explain his plans, but Lincoln, raising 
his hand, interrupted : — 

"No, no; don't tell me. Everybody will ask me, 
and I want to reply that I don't know what your in- 

* April eighth. 



390 Lincoln and Grant Correspond. [isg4. 

tentions are. I only wish to know your opinion of tlie 
prospects." 

Grant modestly replied that he thought them good. He 
said his two chief purposes were to keep all the troops 
active, East and West, and, instead of guarding long lines of 
communication, to concentrate his supplies near the front, 
where our soldiers protecting them could be destroying the 
rebel country, and yet free from attack, unless the foe 
weakened his main army to harass them. After his return 
to the front, the President wrote him* an assuring letter : — 

" Not expecting to see you before the spring campaign opens, I wish 
to express in this way my entire satisfaction with what you have done 
up to this time, so far as I understand it. The particulars of your plans I 
neither know nor seek to know. You are vigilant and self-reliant, and, 
pleased with this, I wish not to obtrude any restraints or constraints upon 
you. While I am very anxious that any great disaster or capture of our men 
in great numbers shall be avoided, I know that these points are less likely 
to escape your attention than they would mine. If there be any thing 
wanting which is within my power to give, do not fail to let me know it. 
And now, with a brave army and a just cause, may God sustain you !" 

Grant replied : — 

" Your very kind letter of yesterday is just received. The confidence you 
express for the future, and satisfaction for the past, in my military adminis- 
tration, is acknowledged with pride. It shall be my earnest endeavor that 
you and the country shall not be disappointed. From my first entrance 
into the volunteer service of the country to the present day, I have never 
had cause of complaint — have never expressed or implied a complaint against 
the Administration or the Secretary of War, for throwing any embarrassment 
in the way of my vigorously prosecuting what appeared to be my duty. In- 
deed, since the promotion which placed me in command of all the armies, 
and in view of the great responsibility and importance of success, I have been 
astonished at the readiness with which every thing asked for has been yielded, 
without even an explanation being asked. Should my success be less than I 
desire and expect, the least I can say is, the fault is not with you." 

The three corps constituting the Army of the Potomac 
were commanded by Hancock, Sedgwick, and Warren. 
Sheridan, whom Grant had brought from the West, was in 

* April thirtieth. 



1864.] What the General determined to do. 391 

charge of all the cavalry. Burnside's splendid Ninth Corps 
— now containing several negro regiments — was brought 
from Annapolis to participate j n the movement. Passing 
through Washington, it was reviewed by Lincoln from 
the balcony of Willard' s. The black soldiers greeted the 
Chief Magistrate with great enthusiasm, flinging up their 
caps,, shouting and cheering. A shower came up, and by- 
standers urged the President, who wore a brown linen 
blouse, to go within, that he might not get wet. He replied : 

"If they can stand it, I guess I can." 

Hitherto — in the words of Grant' s final report — our scat- 
tered armies 

" had acted independently and without concert, like a balky team, no t\\ T o ever 
pulling together, enabling the enemy to use to great advantage his interior 
lines of communication for transporting troops from East to West, re- enfor- 
cing the army most vigorously pressed, and to furlough large numbers, during 
seasons of inactivity on our part, to go to their homes and do the work of 
producing, for the support of their armies. It was a question whether our 
numerical strength and resources were not more than balanced by these dis- 
advantages and the enemy's superior position. 

"I therefore determined, first, to use the greatest number of troops prac- 
ticable against the armed force of the enemy, preventing him from using the 
same force at different seasons, against first one and then another of our ar- 
mies, and the possibility of repose for refitting and producing necessary sup- 
plies for carrying on resistance; second, to hammer continuously against 
the armed force of the enemy and his resources, until by mere attrition, if in 
no other way, there should be nothing left to him but an equal submission 
with the loyal section of our common country to the constitution and laws." 

Along the whole line for twelve hundred miles, from 
the Atlantic to the Rio Grande, our forces were to advance 
simultaneously — Butler up the James, Grant and Meade 
across the Rapidan, Sigel up the Shenandoah, Averill in 
West Virginia, Sherman and Thomas from Chattanooga, and 
Banks up the Red River toward Texas. Every column was 
to be hurled simultaneously upon the foe. 

The heaviest movement, however, must be made against 
Lee, who had thus far withstood like a rock every assault 
from the Army of the Potomac. Grant said to Meade : — 

"Lee's army will be my objective point. Wherever he 
goes I will go also." 



392 Why He Chose the Overland Route. [1864. 

The rebel chief was at Orange Court- House, a few miles 
south of Grant. The two armies had not met in battle for 
nine months. Lee had interior lines and an admirably defen- 
sible country with which he was personally familiar. In it 
his father — "Light-Horse Harry," of the Revolution — had 
spent the closing years of his checkered life, and Lee him- 
self had defeated the Union army in two campaigns. His 
troops had the confidence in themselves born of habitual 
victory and a well-grounded faith in him which the Union 
Army could not feel in its untried commander. 

Grant was at Culpepper Court-House, just north of the 
the scene of Hooker' s disastrous failure at Chancellorville, 
and a few miles from the ground of Burnside' s bloody re- 
pulse at Fredericksburg. His army was much larger than 
Lee's, but it was an army so accustomed to defeat that it 
fought with the mechanical sturdiness of manhood and mili- 
tary drill rather than the fiery zeal of predestined victory. 

He had determined to move toward Richmond — seventy 
miles, by the direct or land route — across a heavily-tim- 
bered country, broken by many streams running at right 
angles with his line of march, and easily held against a su- 
perior force. Every mile of progress, too, would make the 
obtaining of supplies harder for him and easier for Lee. 

The line of the James River was in many respects more 
favorable, but President Lincoln had always believed this 
the better route, and Grant adopted it because it would en- 
able him to cover Washington, and was the more direct and 
convenient from the point where he found the army. Had 
he abandoned Culpepper and gone around to the mouth of 
the James, it would have left the capital open to Lee for a 
month, and even if no disaster had followed, the seeming 
retreat could not have failed to dispirit his troops. Still, 
he was not altogether sanguine of success, and told his 
staff and Meade and Butler that in case of failure he should 
ultimately cross the James and attack Richmond from the 
south. 

On the evening of Tuesday, May third, Meade issued or- 
ders to strike tents, and sent forward the pontoon trains to 
lay bridges at Ely's Ford and Germania Ford. While 



1864.] 



The Army once more in Motion. 



393 



Culpepper was noisy with rumbling wheels, clattering hoofs, 
and tramping feet, Grant, Rawlins, and Washburne sat in 
the head-quarters tent until two in the morning, talking of 
history, literature, and politics. Then they rolled them- 
selves in their blankets. The troops started at midnight, 
marching silently by the light of the stars. 

Next morning, the citizens were surprised to find the 







THE VIRGINIA CAMPAIGN OP 1864. 



army gone. The General and his staff breakfasted, and gal- 
loped away from the deserted village. At Germania they 
found the splendid soldiers of Warren and Sedgwick 
streaming over the Rapidan, in long lines of blue, tipped 
with shining bayonets and garlanded with starry flags. At 
Ely's, Hancock's men were crossing, followed by the enor- 
mous supply train of four thousand wagons. Before night 



394 Battle of the Wilderness Begins. [1864. 

the army was south of the river, encamped on the historic 
field of Chancellorville and around the house to which 
Stonewall Jackson was borne, mortally wounded. 

At nine o'clock, all lights were put out. Grant, who had 
feared that the enemy might dispute his passage or fall upon 
his train, regarded the safe crossing as a great success, and 
now hoped to find a clear road. His immediate design was 
to get between the rebel capital and the rebel army, and he 
had hopes even of crushing that army in one decisive battle. 
"It was my intention," says his final report, "to fight Lee 
between Culpepper and Richmond if lie would stand." 

Lee not only stood but he came. Early on Wednesday, 
from a high mountain station, his signal officers had notified 
him that the Union columns were moving. He started 
on the instant to strike their line of march at a right angle. 
Grant was facing south ; at dark Lee coming in from the 
westward, was close upon the national camps in the 
Wilderness— a great desolate region of worn-out and aban- 
doned tobacco fields— broken table- land, covered with 
scraggy oak, sassafras, hazel, and pine. It is intersected 
by narrow roads and deep ravines, and covered with under- 
growth so dense that a man on foot penetrates it with diffi- 
culty, and can see only a few feet before him. 

Grant did not mean to fight in this "darkling wood," 
but early on Thursday morning* an orderly came back with 
intelligence that Warren had encountered the enemy. 

Meade.—" Then the rebels have left a division here to 
fool us while they concentrate toward the North Anna." 

Shortly after came a dispatch from Sheridan's cavalry 
who were scouring the front, 

Meade.— "They think Lee intends to fight us here." 

Grant. — " Very well ; let him be attacked vigorously 
wherever he appears." 

The struggle was soon "vigorous" enough. Artillery 
could hardly be used in that tangled forest, and infantry 
had to move in by the compass, but it was soon engaged in 
the deadliest fighting. 

* May fifth. 



1364.] TEREIBLE BUT INDECISIVE CONFLICT. 395 

Meade planted his head-quarters flag just out of range 
upon a knoll covered with dry pines, and pitched his tents 
"back in a little open space overlooking an old quartz mill at 
the foot of a hill. 

The day was intensely hot. In close, stifling ravines, in 
jungles of interlacing branches and vines, Death held high 
carnival. Every advance was into an ambush, where our 
soldiers found the rebels on their knees, awaiting them. 
Many received only trivial wounds from flattened bullets, 
which glanced from the trees ; but thousands were struck in 
lungs or stomach, and out of the dark forest began to flow 
interminable processions, bearing bleeding forms, upon 
blankets and stretchers. 

By 2 p. M. the entire army was engaged. Under a tree 
upon the knoll sat Grant, smoking, whittling, and talking 
quietly. Near him, stood Meade* — tall, slender, and stoop- 
ing, wearing spectacles, and looking more the scholar than 
the soldier — answering dispatches and issuing orders. A 
rumor came back that the skillful and gallant Hancock was 
repulsed, and our entire left wing giving way. 

"I don't believe it," insisted Grant, cutting at a root 
with his knife. "There must be some mistake about it.' 1 

But finding it impossible to stay in the rear, the chief 
galloped forward to where the battle raged, and rode to and 
fro, consulting with officers, but giving no orders except 
general ones to Meade. 

Darkness closed upon an unfinished battle. Both armies 
had shown the utmost determination ; both had lost and won 
much ground over and over again. Lee telegraphed to 
Richmond, in his usual moderate vein : — 

"By the blessing of God we maintained our position against every 
effort, until night, when the conflict closed. We have to mourn the loss 
of many brave officers and men." 

Grant sent no dispatches, but ordered a general attack 
at half-past three the next morning. At midnight in his 

* In the pages following I speak of the Army of the Potomac sometimes as 
"Meade's" and sometimes as "Grant's." 



396 Second Day— Lee's Narrow Escape. L" 1864 - 

guarded tent lie was awakened by an orderly witli a dis- 
patch from Meade, saying that at half-past three our men 
could not distinguish each other from the rebels, and sug- 
gesting six o'clock as a better hour. 

Grant (drowsily). — " Very well, let it be at six." 

A Staff Officer. — " Why, General, the sun is an hour 
and a half high at six o'clock !" 

Grant (rising and walking to get awake). — "True, that 
will be too late. Instruct Meade to delay the attack until a 
quarter-past four — not a minute later. It is of great impor- 
tance that we should begin the battle." 

Friday* dawned. Lee, with the same desire to secure 
for his soldiers the moral effect of the offensive, had likewise 
ordered a general assault the moment it should be light 
enough. The result was that Union troops fired the first gun 
on our left and center, and rebels the first on our right. 

The cloudless day was excessively hot. Both armies 
had intrenched. Grant's line faced westward, Sedgwick 
holding the right, Warren the center, and Hancock the left. 

Before nine a. M., Hancock impetuously drove the ene- 
my for two miles, almost overrunning Lee's head-quarters. 
Had he pressed right on he would inevitably have cut the 
rebel army in twain, and ended the campaign then and there. 
But in that dense forest he was out of reach of his supports, 
his flanks were in danger, and he paused to readjust his line. 

Lee, seeing that he faltered, placed himself at the head 
of a Texan division, to lead a charge and retrieve his des- 
perate fortunes. The rebels refused to budge a step with 
their favorite chief thus periling his life, but after he had 
taken his proper place in the rear, they pushed forward 
with new-born energy, and drove back the Union column. 

Already, James S. Wadsworth, a leading citizen of New 
York and a most gallant major-general of volunteers, had 
had two horses killed under him ; and now he fell, shot 
through the head. Burnside' s corps arrived, after a rapid 
march, and took a position between Warren and Hancock. 
The rebels, also, were strengthened by Longstreet' s corps, 

* May sixth. 



1864.] Grant Whittles and Smokes. 397 

the advance reaching the ground in season to help drive 
Hancock back, and the rest during the forenoon. 

There was desperate fighting from morning until night. 
"It was the longest day I ever passed," says one of the 
spectators. Grant, who was in military undress, without 
sash or sword, spent it chiefly at Meade' s head-quarters on the 
knoll, sitting quietly at the foot of a stunted tree, still whit- 
tling, but when the prospect grew darkest, letting the lire 
go out and chewing his cigar instead of smoking. There 
was grave cause for anxiety, but as each new rumor of dis- 
aster came, he invariably declared that he did not believe 
it. He said to a journalist : — 

"It has been my experience that though the Southerners 
I fight desperately at first, yet when we hang on for a day or 
\two w^e whip them awfully." 

\ In the afternoon the rebels concentrated, and began a 
vigorous charge to overwhelm Hancock. But at that mo- 
ment Longstreet and his staff, who had just reached the 
field, galloped down the road. The confederates, taking 
them for Union cavalry, fired upon them. Longstreet re- 
ceived a wound in the neck and shoulder, which kept him 
out of the field for nearly a year. The confusion caused by 
his fall delayed the attack until the Union line was strength- 
ened, and easily checked it. Hancock's escape was almost 
as narrow as Lee's had been in the morning. 

Warren, Burnside, and Sedgwick likewise did superb 
fighting through the day, with alternate good and ill for- 
tune. One regiment rushed out of the woods toward head- 
quarters, in dire confusion. Grant sprang upon his horse 
and dashed forward to see what was the matter. It proved 
that a sudden panic had seized them, and they had become 
separated from their brigade. 

The General directed an aide to have the bridge upoD 
which Burnside' s corps had crossed the Rapidan taken up 
and brought forward. To a suggestion that it might yet be 
needed, he answered : — 

"One bridge and the ford will be amply sufficient toj 
I cross all the men left, if we should have to fall back !" 

At four p. m., during another fierce assault upon our 



398 A Talk before the Camp Fire. [i864. 

intrenched lines, the woods took fire. The smoke and 
flames blowing in the faces of onr men, compelled them to 
fall back, and the rebels rnshed forward and occupied their 
works. After the smoke subsided, our troops retook them, 
capturing many prisoners. 

Even darkness did not bring quiet. The confederate 
General Gordon, flinging his division upon our right flank, 
captured two brigades, and created a panic hitherto un- 
equaled. Surgeons fled from their hospitals in the old 
quartz mill, and soldiers came running back to head-quar- 
ters, declaring that all was lost. It was the most alarming 
moment of the campaign ; but Sedgwick checked the onset, 
and restored the line. 

Before midnight came yet another alarm, caused by mus- 
ketry and terrific yells from thousands of throats. Quarter- 
masters began to strike tents. The General said : — 

"They have broken through Warren's line. I don't 
know but we shall have to get out of this." 

It proved a voice and nothing more. Gordon, expect- 
ing an attack where his line was extremely weak, had 
ordered the yells, to give an exaggerated idea of its 
strength. 

After midnight, a correspondent who accompanied head- 
quarters sat by the camp fire, unable to sleep, and wonder- 
ing sadly if he had followed the chief to the Army of the 
Potomac only to chronicle his ruin. Looking up, he saw 
Grant, sitting on the other side of the blaze, his hat slouch- 
ing so low, and the collar of his blue overcoat standing so 
high, that most of his face was hidden. He, too, was 
buried in thought. Through the long, trying day his 
serenity had appeared unshaken, but, now that he was 
alone, nervous shiftings of one leg over the other, and 
worn, haggard looks, showed how deeply he was moved at 
the dreadful and seemingly fruitless shedding of blood. 

Still he would not admit, in the profoundest recesses of 
his heart, that there was any danger of failure. He ex- 
pressed regrets to his friend at the appalling loss of life, 
but said that as Lee could choose his own ground, we 
must fight him wherever we found him — often at great 



■ 



186-t.] A Leader found at Last. 399 

disadvantage, but with absolute certainty of destroying him 
at last. After talking until two o'clock, lie went to his cot. 

The battle of the Wilderness was over, and we had 
barely held our own. Careless lookers-on doubted whether 
there were more men in the hospitals or on the field. But, 
the Union causalties actually footed up far less than it was 
at first expected. The rebels had fought with dauntless 
courage and tenacity. But in vain was their valor, in vain 
the skill of their chief. They might, indeed, check the Army 
of the Potomac, but never more were they to drive it back. 
It had found a leader at last ! 

During these anxious days, Frank B. Carpenter, the 
artist, painting "the Signing of the Proclamation," at the 
White House, asked the Chief Magistrate :— 

"How does Grant impress you as compared with other 
leading generals ?" 

" The great thing about him," answered the President, 
"is cool persistency of purpose. He is not easily excited, 
and he has the grip of a bull dog. When he once gets his 
teeth in, nothing can shake him off." 

Lincoln afterward said that any previous commander 
of the Army of the Potomac would have fallen back across 
the Rapidan, at the end of such a conflict. 

At Washington on that Friday night there was gravest 
apprehension. The Government having no dispatches from 
the General, was in complete ignorance of the result of the 
battle, and even of the whereabouts of the army. Among 
other rumors it was reported that the rebel trooper, Stuart, 
was making a raid, cutting off Grant' s communications. At 
the request of Lincoln and Stanton, Dana, the Assistant 
Secretary of War, started for the front at midnight by a 
special train, to report the situation. After he reached 
Alexandria, a telegram called him back to the War Office, 
where he found the worn President and secretary still sitting. 

Lincoln.— "We are afraid to have you go to-night. 
The danger of your capture is too great." 

Dana.— " Then Til go home to bed. Good night." 

Lincoln (hesitatingly).— "Are you afraid to make the 
journey ?" 



400 A CORRESPOXDEXT COMES TO GRIEF. [ 1864 - 

Dana. — "Oh, no. I have a good escort, and two of 
Sedgwick' s officers, who know every ford of the Rapidan, 
and every foot of the country." 

Lincoln (to Stanton). — "Then, I guess, we'd better let 
him go." 

Dana pushed forward, and though encountering swarms 
of stragglers, and all sorts of rumors, rode up to head- 
quarters at noon on Saturday, and found Grant and Meade, 
not only safe, but at their mid-day lunch of sandwiches. 
He remained at the front until the end of the campaign. 

Our old friend Cadwallader yearned to supply the 
North with news, and to make a hit for the New York 
Herald, which he now served. So he started across the 
country, carrying two huge sacks of letters from head- 
quarters, and his own dispatches which contained the 
names of many thousands of wounded copied from the 
hospital lists. At midnight, riding through the forest south 
of the Rappahannock, unaware of any enemy within miles 
of him, he was suddenly hit upon the head by the butt-end 
of a musket and knocked off his steed. The guerrillas 
had him ! N ext morning, however, they encountered a little 
Union force near Fredericksburg. During the skirmish, by 
the gift of horse, saddle, bridle, and two hundred dollars in 
greenbacks, Cadwallader induced the sergeant who had him 
in charge to look one way while he walked off the other. 

After a day of starvation in the woods, and a voyage 
on the Potomac upon an improvised raft, he was picked up 
by a Union gun-boat, and reached Washington on Sunday 
night. He had given unwitting comfort to the enemy. 
The Richmond papers published copious extracts from his 
lists of killed and wounded, to show how " Grant the But- 
cher" was slaughtering his own soldiers. 



1364] "Not a Retreating Man." 401 



CHAPTER XXXIII. 



SPOTTSYLVAXIA TO COLD HARBOR. 



During all Saturday the two armies confronted each 
other, both too much bruised and shattered to attack. They 
spent the day in removing the suffering and burying the 
peaceful sleepers, who lay in masses of mingled gray and 
blue. The soldiers on both sides were sobered, and the 
most profane forgot their oaths. 

Grant was sending back his wounded to Fredericksburg, 
and opening roads on his front. The smoke of his cigar was 
seen on every part of the field, but the smoker was more 
taciturn than usual. 

In the rebel lines it was believed that our army was fall- 
ing back. Gordon said to Lee : — -^^ 

"I think there is no doubt but that Grant is retreating." 

"You are mistaken," replied the confederate chief, \ 
earnestly, "quite mistaken. Grant is not retreating: lie 
is not a retreating man." 

Forward, not back, was the word ! After dark, the tents ' 
were struck, and Grant and Meade, with their staffs and es- 
corts, started along a narrow road, lined with thousands of 
Hancock's sleeping men. At the sound of tramping hoofs. 
drowsy soldiers rubbed their eyes and asked : — 

"What's that «" 

Others, recognizing the chief, answered : — 

"That's Grant 'on to Richmond.' " 

This waked up the troops. They were not to Ml back 
this time, but actually to go on ! The welcome news was 
received with a chorus of cheers which, passing from regi- 
ment to regiment, accompanied the cavalcade for a mile and 
a half, till the ears of all the riders ached. 

Grant.— "Well, we are at least revenging ourselves on 
the rebels for their yells of last night." 

BB 



402 Sheridan Ordered to March. t 1864 - 

Through the darkness lie rode at a brisk gallop, and 
twice his party ran into hostile pickets, and shots were ex- 
changed. During a halt our pickets asked one of the head- 
quarters' party : — 

' ' Where are you going V ' 
"To Spottsylvania." 
" Then you will have a skrimmage." 
"Why?" 

"Well, nothing, except that there are fifty thousand 
rebels in front of you, as Sheridan has found out." 

Reaching Todd's tavern, a dilapidated cross-road hos- 
tlery in the Wilderness, two hours after midnight, the Gen- 
eral and staff rolled themselves in their blankets and slept 
on the bar-room floor until daylight/- Then they again 
moved forward and established head-quarters near Meade 
at " Piney Branch Church," in a pleasant grove. While 
they breakfasted under a tree, up rode Sheridan. Grant 
directed him to start on a raid against Lee's communica- 
tions with Richmond. He received his orders, touched his 
hat with a bright smile, leaped upon his horse, and galloped 
gayly away. 

The General had ordered the whole army forward. Had 
it moved promptly it would have reached Spottsylvania be- 
fore Lee, and interposed between him and Richmond, forcing 
him to fight for his communications. It had to march only 
twelve miles, but was delayed by various causes to the sore 
disappointment of the chief. 

Meanwhile Lee, divining Grant's plan, had already sent 
his engineers to open roads and prepare fortifications ; and 
while the Union rear-guard was firing its last gun at the 
Wilderness, its advance came upon Lee' s troops in front 
of his new works, three miles from Spottsylvania. 

Fighting began at nine a. m., and lasted through the 
day. The enemy was driven back, but not until the delay 
had enabled him to complete his strong works. 

Monday was devoted chiefly to maneuvering, though 
there was some heavy fighting. Sedgwick on the front of 

* Sunday, May eighth. 



1864 -] Sedgwick is Killed. 403 

his corps, seeing his men dodge at occasional bullets from 
sharp-shooters, said laughingly : — 

" Pooh, men, don't duck ; they couldn't hit an elephant 
at that distance. ' ' 

As he spoke a bullet pierced his brain, and the veteran 
fell dead, wearing his usual calm smile. He was perhaps 
the best soldier in the Army of the Potomac. Grant re- 
garded his loss greater in a mere military view than the 
destruction of an entire division would have been. 

Hundreds of fugitives were pouring into Washington. 
Four runaway colonels even were taken to the War Depart- 
ment in irons, and the air was thick with rumors that 
Grant was in full retreat. This afternoon, however, receiv- 
ing a dispatch from Meade, the President issued the fol- 
lowing :— 

" To the Friends of Union and Liberty : — 

"Enough is known of the army operations within the last five days to 
claim our especial gratitude to God. While what remains undone demands 
our most sincere prayers to and reliance upon Him (without whom all human 
effort is vain), I recommend that all patriots, at their homes, in their places 
of public worship, and wherever they may be, unite in common thanksgiving 
and prayer to Almighty God." 

On Tuesday morning * Meade's line was six miles long. 
The day saw hard fighting in deep ravines, in dense pine 
forests, and in pleasant sun-bathed fields. Once the woods 
took tire, and a number of wounded were burned to death. 

Just before dark under a thundering cannonade a charge 
was made by our entire line. Several rebel works were 
carried. A Vermont brigade captured an important one, 
but found itself without supports. The moment Grant 
heard of it he directed : — 

" Pile in the men and hold the work." 

But before this could be done the brigade had been 
withdrawn. 

Our forces failed to break the enemy' s main line, but 
brought back more than a thousand prisoners. Little by 
little the Union troops were gaining upon the rebels. Grant 

* May tenth. 



404 "Fight it Out on this Lute." [is&l 

kept with him liis heavy siege trains for attacking Rich- 
mond, and replied to all desponding questions: — "We are 
going through ; there is no doubt about it." 

On Wednesday morning/- after an early breakfast, 
Washburne, about starting for Washington, stood with the 
General and staff while his escort was getting ready. 

AYashbukxe. — "What word have you to send P 5 

GrRANT. — " ISTone I think, except that we are fighting 
away here/' 

AVashbfexe. — "Hadn't you better send Stanton just a 
scratch of the pen V ' 

Grant. — ' ; Perhaps so.'' 

He stepped into his tent, and, without a moment's re- 
flection, dashed off a note, apparently not even reading it 
after it was written : — 

" We have now ended the sixth day of very hard fighting. The result, 
to this time, is much in our favor. Our losses have been heavy, as well as 
those of the enemy. I think the loss of the enemy must be greater. We 
have taken over five thousand prisoners in battle, while he has taken from 
us but few. except stragglers. I propose tojigltt it out on this line, if it takes 
all summer." 1 

At ten that night Washburne delivered the note. Stan- 
ton forwarded it to Dix. " whose duty it was to deal infor- 
mation which the "War Department cut for him," and Dix 
sent it to the press of the country. It relieved the general 
suspense, and the italicized sentence was received with great 
enthusiasm. It gave expression to the popular desire to 
fight right through to victory, regardless of the cost. 

Wednesday was spent in skirmishing and maneuvering. 
Thursday* brought a long and desperate battle. Late on 
the previous night, which was very dark and stormy, Han- 
cock had massed his corps near the rebel left. At dawn he 
made a charge in the dense woods. On coming; in sisrht of 
the enemy's works his troops burst into ringing cheers and 
broke into a run. They rushed over the abatis and into the 
breastworks, surprising the rebels at breakfast. 

After brief fighting with bayonets and clubbed muskets, 

* May eleventh. j }iay twelfth. 



isc-t.] Hancock's splendid Charge. 405 

they sent back thirty stands of colors and over three thou- 
sand prisoners, including two generals — Edward Johnson 
and George H. Stewart. Hancock had known "both in the 
old army, and he shook hands courteously with Johnson, 
who said, with tears in his eves, that he wished death had 
met him rather than such disaster. His fellow- captive was 
not in the melting mood. 

Haxcock. — ,; How are you, Stewart I" 

Stewaet. — "Sir. I am General Stewart, of the confed- 
erate army. and. under present circumstances. I decline to 
take your hand." 

Hancock. — "Under any other circumstances, general, I 
should not have offered it I" 

To Grant. Hancock wrote : — *'I have finished up John- 
son, and am now going into Early." Suiting the action to 
the word, he pushed forward, and, in the face of sharp re- 
sistance, captured Early's ritie-pits. 

His corps was now a wedge, inserted between Lee's 
right and center. If the wedge had only been driven home ! 
This would have made short work of the rebellion. But. 
unfortunately. Hancock was unsupported, and the enemy 
rallied and checked him. 

Though heavy rain set in at mid-day. tierce righting con- 
tinued until dark. In live vehement hut unsnccess 
charges Lee tried to regain his lost eround. Again and 
again, too. Meade made fruitless attempts to advance. Union 
and confederate colors were often planted on different sides 
of the same "breastwork. 

At midnight, after twenty hours of obstinate combat. 
Lee drew back his bleeding columns to his second line of 
intrenchments. The field, the bloodiest of the war. was 
literally covered with dead, and showed other evidences of 
the hardest righting. The trunk of one tree, eighteen inches 
in diameter, was entirely cut off by bullets. Grant had lost 
eight thousand men: but his army was beginning to acquire 
a habit of driving the enemy instead of being driven. After 
dark, he dispatched to Washington : — 

11 The eighth day of battle closes, leaving between three and four thou- 
sand prisoners in our hands for the day's work, including two general officers. 



406 Orders from Meade and Lee. [1863. 

***** The enemy are obstinate, and seem to have found the last 
ditch." 

Next morning,* the main force of the enemy had fallen 
Iback, but there was frequent skirmishing. Once the rebels 
suddenly poured out of the woods, and almost surrounded 
a house occupied by Meade. An engineer, familiar with the 
ground, took him out by a back door, and he safely reached 
the Lieutenant-General' s head-quarters, from which his 
narrow escape had been seen. 

Grant (laughing). — " What's the fuss over there ?" 

Meade. — " Nothing — only they came pretty near catch- 
ing the commander of the Army of the Potomac." 

The same day Meade issued a congratulatory order to his 
troops : — 

"For eight days and nights, without almost any intermission, through 
rain and sunshine, you have been fighting a desperate foe, in positions 
naturally strong, and rendered doubly so by intrenchments. * * * Now 
he lias abandoned the last intrenched position, so tenaciously held, suffering 
in all a loss of eighteen guns, twenty-two colors, eight thousand prisoners, 
including two general officers. * * * Let us return thanks to God for 
the mercy thus shown us, earnestly ask for its continuance. * * * The 
enemy must be pursued, and, if possible, overcome. * * * We shall soon 
receive re-enforcements, which he can not expect." 

The next day, in an order to Ms soldiers, Lee related that 
detachments of our army along the Shenandoah, on the Vir- 
ginia and Tennessee Railway, in Western Louisiana under 
Banks, at the northern defenses of Richmond under Sheri- 
dan, and on the south side of the James under Butler, had 
all been successfully repelled, with the loss of many prison- 
ers. He concluded : — 

" The heroic valor of this army, with the blessing of Almighty God, has 
tli us far checked the principal army of the enemy, and inflicted upon it heavy 
losses. * * * Encouraged by the success that has been vouchsafed to us, 
and stimulated by the great interests that depend upon us, let every man re- 
solve to endure all and brave all ; until, by the assistance of a just and merci- 
ful God, the enemy shall be driven back, and peace secured to our country. 
Continue to emulate the valor of your comrades who have fallen, and remem- 
ber that it depends upon you whether they shall have died in vain. It is in 

♦Friday, May thirteenth. 



1863.] How Grant Received a Stranger. 407 

your power, under God, to defeat the last great effort of the enemy, establish 
the independence of your native land, and earn the lasting love and gratitude 
of your countrymen, and the admiration of mankind. 1 ' 

For several days the armies remained quiet, Bending 
back their dead and wounded, and bringing up commissary 
stores. Grant, too, was receiving re-enforcenicnts. 

A Maine gentleman, present to look after the sick and 
wounded, found head-quarters in a beautiful open grove. 
He thus describes his call : — 

"Dismounting and tying my horse to a sapling, I asked of the guard 
where I could find an officer who would introduce me to the General, lie 
replied: — "No need of any introduction; just walk in.' I approached the 
open tent, made the best military salutation at my command — doubtless 
awkward enough — and asked : ' Is General Grant in V 'That is my name,' 
answered a quiet officer sitting on his camp chair, and withdrawing his cigar 
from his mouth. ' I am all the way from Maine, General, and want to shake 
hands with you. 1 ' Well, well, come in — have a seat.' 

" I accepted his invitation only upon his assurance that there was time 
enough; and sat and talked with him a few minutes, exceedingly gratified at. 
his kindly manner toward a stranger in citizen's dress who came to him 
without pass or invitation. 11 

During one of these May evenings, Isaac IS". Arnold, of 
Illinois, was at tin? White House, when allusion was made 
to pending attempts to make Grant a candidate for the 
Presidency. The Union people were for Lincoln ; but 
many politicians were not. He said to his visitor : — 

" If Grant could be more useful than I in putting down tin' 
rebellion, I would be quite content. He is fully committed 
to the policy of emancipation and employing negro soldiers ; 
and with this policy faithfully carried out, it will not make 
much difference who is President." 

Meade suggested that Hancock's corps, by attacking 
again on our right, might break the enemy's line The 
General — who never discouraged any promising project — 
replied : — 

"Very well ; let him try. 1 ' 

At dawn, on the eighteenth, the attempt was made. Han- 
cock's men did all that men could do ; but were compelled 
to retire with a loss of twelve hundred. Grant— exceedingly 



408 The Feeling in Meade's Aemy. [i8G4. 

tender hearted in spite of the favorite epithet of the enemy 
— was deeply grieved at the sacrifice ■ but Meade said, truth- 
fully :- 

" We can't do these things without risks — without heavy 
losses." 

The chief fully comprehended this, and his faith in the 
final result never faltered. Many men and some officers, 
approving of his fighting policy, said triumphantly : — 

' ' Lee no longer commands this army. It is under a gen- 
eral now who don't take orders from him." 

But there were others who declared : — 

' ' Grant finds his match at last. He encounters different 
troops and a different commander from those he met in the 
West." 

The Army of the Potomac fought splendidly and un- 
flinchingly. There was no conspicuous disloyalty ; and yet 
something of the old feeling yet lingered — the feeling that 
Grant was only a lucky general, ayIio had climbed up by 
the shoulders of Sherman and McPherson ; and that Lee was 
a great chieftain, certain to accomplish what he attempted. 

Through this entire campaign, our army faced the West 
with its right toward Washington, and its left toward Rich- 
mond. On the afternoon of the nineteenth Lee tried the 
flanking game. Ewell' s corps got in the rear of the Union 
right, and assaulted vigorously, but was repulsed with 
heavy loss. The hammer was beginning to tell. Never 
afterward did the enemy leave his breastworks to attack, 
except in one or two desperate cases. 

On the night of May twenty-first, the national army left 
Spottsylvania and continued the movement toward our left, 
reaching the North Anna on the afternoon of the twenty- 
third. * The vigilant Lee, anticipating this, had pushed for- 
ward upon his shorter line, and again confronted it. 

Grant threw his troops across the river, Warren's men 
building a bridge of boards and timbers which the} r had cut 

* That night Stanton telegraphed to the Northern press that heavy re-enforce- 
ments had been forwarded to Grant ; twenty thousand sick and wounded from the 
fields received at the Washington hospitals; over eight thousand rebels at the 
prison depots, and much captured artillery at the seat of Government. 



1864.] Sheridan within the Enemy's Lines. 409 

out in a captured rebel saw-mill. A thousand prisoners 
were captured, but Lee held a salient extending down to 
the stream in the form of a letter V, and could not be 
dislodged from it without great sacrifice of life. Grant Ml 
back, therefore, to the north bank, and a little quiet fol- 
lowed. 

On the twenty-fifth Sheridan rejoined the army, after 
sixteen days spent in "smashing things" within the ene- 
my' s lines. From the beginning, the cavalry of the Army 
of the Potomac had been notoriously inefficient. The in- 
fantry jeered at it, and Hooker offered twenty-five dollars for 
the body of any trooper killed in a fight. When Sheridan 
took charge, he found it improved, but still engaged chiefly 
in picket and guard duty. He very soon gave it new char- 
acter. He kept it protecting the flanks and scouring the 
front of our army and Imrassing the enemy. 

On cutting loose from Spottsylvania, he was in his ele- 
ment. He loved work, and the noise of fighting kindled in 
his face the expression of enjoyment which most counte- 
nances wear on hearing a good story. He captured supply 
trains, tore up railways, released four hundred Union 
prisoners, and at Yellow Tavern, within six miles of Rich- 
mond, * defeated a large cavalry force, and mortally wounded 
J. E. B. Stuart, Lee 1 s ablest and most daring cavalry leader, 
and an eye-sore to the Army of the Potomac. 

Sheridan pursued the routed rebels into the defenses of 
Richmond, capturing a section of artillery and a hundred 
prisoners. His official report adds : — 

" For the balance of the day we collected our wounded, buried our dead, 
grazed our horses, and read the Richmond papers: two small news-boys 
having, with commendable energy, entered our lines and sold them to the 
officers and men." 

Moving with great skill and daring — destroying bridges 
behind him and building them in front — he reached 
Haxall's, on the James ; communicated with Butler, rested 
for several days, and started back. After amusing himself 
on the road by destroying another long stretch of railway 

* May eleventh. 



410 Grant withdraws from North Anna. P 

near Hanover, here lie was again. He had kept Le 
cavalry utterly unable to molest our supply trains, made 
his arm of the service, for the first time, a terror to the 
enemy, and cleared the road for a new advance. 

Grant withdrew at night * from North Anna, and moved 
forward, flanking again. Sheridan was not allow., I a day's 
rest. At noon, on the twenty-seventh, he held the crossing 
of the Pamunkey at Hanovertown, fifteen miles north of 
Richmond, and built a pontoon bridge, upon which the 
army crossed during that day and the next. In anticipation 
of this, supplies had already come up by steamers to Whit.' 
House, on the Pamunkey. 

On Sunday, the twenty -ninth, • our army again found 
Lee upon its front; and there was heavy skirmishing that 
day and the next, as he slowly fell back. 

On the thirty-first, Sheridan, on the advance, encountered 
stubborn resistance near Cold Harbor. Grant, receiving 
word that he was very hard pressed, directed him to held 
the position at all hazards. So he threw up intrenchments, 
and fought sturdily until the next morning, when the 
infantry arrived to relieve him. 

Head-quarters were established at Cold Harborf— an old 
tavern, under a spreading catalpa— at the crossing of two 
roads, twelve miles from Richmond, and near the ground 
where McClellan and Lee had fought at Gaines's Mill, two 
years before. 

Grant attacked Lee} to drive him south of the Chicka- 
hominy. The troops charged gallantly across an open field 
and through a strip of woods, taking a line of rifle-pits and 
several hundred prisoners. Further to our right they also 
effected a lodgment, but the pitiless fire from a redoubt on 
the enemy' s second line, compelled them to abandon it. Hot 
work continued during the afternoon and night. Grant lost 
two thousand men ; Lee fewer, as breastworks protected him. 

* May twenty-sixth. 

f Often written : 'Coal Harbor," and "Cool Arbor." But in England, cold har- 
bor was once a common name for a place by the roadside affording shelter, but no 
fire. 

| June first. 



1864] Terrible Fighting at Cold Harbor. 411 

The next day was spent in posting troops and performing 
sad duties for the dead and wounded. At dawn on the 
third Grant assaulted again along the entire front. At many 
points our men pushed the enemy out of his first works ; 
but he rallied and drove them back, capturing prisoners 
and colors. The hot portions of the battle lasted only a few 
minutes, but proved terribly destructive. Lee, fighting be- 
hind breastworks, possessed great advantages. It was the 
most discouraging conflict of the year. Grant had merely 
ordered the assault, leaving details to Meade. There seems 
to have been no proper study of the ground or arrange- 
ment for supports — only the blind hurling of one corps at 
a time against the enemy. One of Hancock's divisions 
broke the rebel line, but finding itself without supports, 
had to withdraw. Ten thousand men to help follow up 
the advantage, would have brought victory instead of defeat. 

At a later hour, Meade ordered each corps commander 
to renew the attack, without reference to the troops on his 
right or left. But the men, willing to fight when fighting 
could avail, did not mean to give their lives for nothing, and 
when the hour came they did not move. 

Grant, in his final report, says of the day's battle : — 

u Our loss was heavy, while that of the enemy, I have reason to believe, 
was comparatively light. It was the only general attack made, from the 
Rapidan to the James, which did not inflict upon the enemy losses to com- 
pensate for our own. I would not be understood as saying that all previous 
attacks resulted in victories to our arms and accomplished as much as I had 
hoped, hut they inflicted upon the enemy severe losses, which tended in the 
end to the complete overthrow of the rebels." 

The army intrenched, in the face of the defiant foe, and 
days of desultory skirmishing ensued. The confederates 
made two night attacks, but both were repulsed. Once there 
was an armistice of two hours, to bury the dead and remove 
the wounded from the bullet-swept space between the lines. 

A few days ended the fighting of the "overland cam- 
paign." An official abstract of Meade's morning reports for 
April, 1864, made up in the Adjutant- General's ofl&ce, 
shows that his aggregate force ' ' present ' ' at the outset 
numbered one hundred and twenty-two thousand four 



412 Relative Strength of Grant and Lee. [ 1864 - 

hundred and eighty-six. Deducting those on special service, 
sick, and under arrest, the officers and men, "present for 
duty, equipped," were eighty-nine thousand seven hundred 
and thirty-seven. The return of Burnside's Ninth Corps, 
for the same month, shows its numbers ' ' present ' ' to have 
been twenty thousand four hundred and forty-four, but does 
not state how many of these were "present for duty, equip- 
ped." If his proportion of men unavailable for battle was 
the same as Meade's, he had fourteen thousand nine hun- 
dred and seventy-eight bearing muskets. One division of 
these, numbering about four thousand, was with the wagon 
train until the army reached the James. Grant' s effective 
force, therefore, after Burnside came up, in the Wilderness, 
did not vary more than a few hundred either way from one 
hundred and two thousand men. 

Lee's official field return, dated April twentieth, 1864, 
shows that his aggregate numbers "present" —exclusive of 
Longstreet's corps and Hoke's division, and two of Ewell's 
regiments, all detached and not reported — were sixty-two 
thousand eight hundred and twenty-five. Deducting those 
on special service, sick, and under arrest, the officers and 
men present and available for battle were fifty-four thou- 
sand two hundred and fifty -six. 

It is believed that this force was materially increased 
before Grant crossed the Rapidan ; but I find no official 
statement showing how much. Longstreet came up in the 
Wilderness with nineteen thousand effectives. Lee's army 
to Grant's, therefore— without estimating other re-enforce- 
ments — was as seventy- three to a hundred and two. 
Whether this disparity, in view of Lee' s thorough familiar- 
ity with the country, and his fighting generally on the 
defensive and often in strong intrenchments, gave Grant 
any advantage over him, is a question which every reader 
must answer for himself. 

The sweet spring days had been days of harvest for the 
great Reaper. Still the frowning walls of the confederacy 
showed no rent nor seam ; and still the tireless arm was 
"hammering away." Which would break first, the granite 
or the hammer ? 



1864.] Lincoln's View of the Situation. 413 



CHAPTER XXXIV 



BEFORE PETERSBURG. 



During the long June days, while Grant confronted Lee 
at Cold Harbor, Meade had the misfortune to excite the ire 
of the journalists. A Philadelphia correspondent wrote, 
that on the second night of the Wilderness battle he would 
have retreated had not Grant prevented it. Meade, with 
natural anger at this injurious statement, arrested its author, 
and, after compelling him to ride through the camps bearing 
the placard, "A Libeler of the Press;' expelled him from 
the army. 

Other journalists, though not at all excusing the offender, 
were so indignant at this degrading penalty, that by common 
impulse, both those in the field and those at Washington 
omitted Meade's name for months from all their dispatches. 
If Jie issued an order, they spoke of it merely as "from 
head-quarters." If he directed a movement, they gave 
credit to the officer commanding in person. A stranger 
reading the papers would have been almost ignorant of 
Meade' s existence. 

One day the Lieutenant- General told the President that 
he proposed to keep Lee in the vicinity of Richmond, while 
Sherman marched, destroying the confederacy. 

Lincoln.— "I don't know much about military techni- 
calities, but, as near as I can understand, you propose to 
hold the leg, while Sherman takes off the skin !" 

Grant.— "Yes, that's exactly what I mean." 

A national convention of the Union republican party 
met at Baltimore to select a Presidential candidate. In vain 
did the politicians labor for Chase, and other eminent lead- 
ers ; the people would have their favorite. When the roll 
was called, every State but one cast its entire vote for Abra- 
ham Lincoln. The Missouri delegation—under instructions 



414 Grant Changes his Base to the James. t 1864 - 

from their radical constituents, who fancied that the Presi- 
dent had not supported them zealously against the conser- 
vatives of the same party — gave their votes for Grant ; but 
afterward changed them, making Lincoln's nomination 
unanimous. 

A rumor was mentioned to the, General that McClellan 
would be ordered to duty under him. He replied : — 

" I would as soon have him for a corps commander as 
any officer I know." 

Grant's final report says : — 

" My idea from the start had been to beat Lee's army north of Richmond, 
if possible ; then, after destroying communications north of the James River, 
to transport the army to the south side and besiege Lee in Richmond, or fol- 
low him south if he should retreat. 1 ' 

It had not proved " possible ;" so, leaving Warren to 
hold Lee by a vigorous show of attacking, on the night of 
Sunday, June twelfth, Meade' s troops moved swiftly across 
the Chickahominy, and over ground familiar to the sur- 
viving veterans of McClellan' s sanguinary battles. 

This most skillful and difficult of all the flanking move- 
ments completely surprised Lee. At first he. supposed it a 
blow against Richmond from the north side. The moment 
he discovered that it was not, he fell back into the city. 

After a march of fifty-five miles, which occupied two 
days, our troops were across the peninsula, and struck the 
James near Charles City Court-House. The pontoons were 
laid, and Grant directed Meade to push Hancock forward 
to aid Butler's army in surprising and capturing Peters- 
burg — an important point at the head of navigation on the 
Appomattox, twenty-two miles from Richmond, and the 
focus of all the railways entering it from the south. He 
telegraphed to Halleck on the fourteenth : — 

" Our forces will commence crossing the James to-day. The enemy shows 
no signs of yet having brought troops to the south side of Richmond. I will 
have Petersburg secured, if possible, before they get there in much force. 
Our movement from Cold Harbor to the James River has been made with 
great celerity, and, so far, without loss or accident. 1 ' 

Abraham Lincoln replied with his own hand : — 



1864.] Smith's Failure at Petersburg. 415 

" I have just received your dispatch of one p. m. yesterday. I begin to 
see it. You will succeed. God bless you all I" 

Butler's orders were, to take Petersburg immediately. 
At seven p. m. , on the fifteenth, W. F. Smith attacked the 
northeast defenses, capturing a line of rifle-pits and several 
field-pieces, and dashing into the main works, where he 
secured three hundred prisoners and sixteen guns. 

Smith had dela}^ed his attack until that late hour, await- 
ing Hancock' s arrival ; "but, through some misunderstand- 
ing, Hancock received no order from Meade to advance 
until he had waited idly for several precious hours on the 
south bank of the James. When it came, he moved rapidly 
and was soon at the front. Being unacquainted with the 
region, he waived rank, and placed his corps under Smith's 
orders. It was bright moonlight, but Smith was ignorant 
of what lay beyond the captured works, and with a lack 
of continuous enterprise marvellous in so brilliant a soldier, 
he halted. He might have gone straight into Petersburg ! 

Not only did he spend the night there, but the next 
morning he even waited for his men to breakfast. Then it 
was too late. Lee, learning by telegraph of his assault, 
instantly put every car to be found in Richmond upon the 
railway, and spent the night in throwing forward his troops 
to Petersburg. The next morning, from the strong fortifica- 
tions, his veterans made our second attempt an utter failure. 

At six that evening, Grant having returned from the 
Army of the Potomac, which he had gone back to hurry 
up, Meade attacked again with two corps. Fighting con- 
tinued through the night, with the capture of a few rebel 
works, some artillery, and four hundred prisoners, but 
without any decisive result. The remainder of the army 
coming up, the attempt was renewed on the seventeenth 
and eighteenth: but it proved impossible to dislodge Lee, 
and our baffled army sat down before Petersburg. 

Grant was sorely disappointed. Butler— a volunteer 
officer— on first approaching the city, had given up his own 
project for attacking on the- north side, in deference to the 
earnest counsel of two West Point subordinates. Actually, 



416 Butler "in a Bottle, strongly Corked." C 1864 - 

only two rebel regiments defended the town on that side, 
and it could have "been carried easily. Shortly afterward 
the rallying enemy drove Butler hack into his works, within 
the triangle between the James and the Appomattox, and 
intrenched strongly upon his front, protecting the railway 
and the city. Of his position, thus cribbed, coffined, and 
confined, Grant's final report says :— 

" His army, therefore, though in a position of great security, was as com- 
pletely shut off from further operations directly against Richmond, as if he 
had been in a bottle strongly corked. It required comparatively a small 
force of the enemy to hold him there. ,, 

The expression " bottled up" had been frequently ap- 
plied to Butler's condition. It did not originate with the 
chief, but he used it as the most fitting. 

Just after the Lieutenant- General arrived, Lee withdrew 
a part of his troops from Butler's front to help defend 
Petersburg. The rebel regiments which were to replace 
them did not get in promptly, and Butler pushed for- 
ward, tearing up half a mile of railway. Grant directed 
him to hold the position at whatever cost, and gave orders 
to throw in the whole army if necessary. But on the after- 
noon of the seventeenth the rebels rallied and recaptured 
their works. We never again broke their line between 
Petersburg and Richmond, until just before the final sur- 
render. 

Since starting from Culpepper Court-House, Grant's 
losses had been heavy, but he had inflicted incalculable 
injury upon the enemy in killed and wounded, besides 
capturing thirteen thousand prisoners. Rebel journal- 
ists, whistling to keep their courage up, exaggerated enor- 
mously the number of his casualties, but regarded him in 
their hearts as a relentless Fate, whose brooding shadow 
covered, inch by inch, more and more of their political 
firmament. 

Northern peace editors echoed their statements, and de- 
clared the change of base to the James a confession of the 
failure of Grant's plan, and the wisdom of McClellan's, at- 
tempted two years' earlier. But friend and foe alike 



1864.] HEAD-QUARTERS AT GlTY PoiOT. 417 

conceded tliat lie had conducted his marching and flanking 
movements with rare skill. During much of the time, he 
supplied more than a hundred thousand soldiers over roads 
so narrow that one wagon could not pass another, yet his 
men never suffered for food, nor did he lose a simrle wagon. 

He now established his head-quarters on the promontory, 
at the junction of the Appomattox and the James, known 
as City Point. There they were to remain nine months. 
Wharves and storehouses were built, and fleets of trans- 
ports brought up supplies, ammunition, and bountiful stores 
from the Sanitary and Christian commissions. 

For a few days there was active work. The rebels at- 
tacked north and south of the James, but were easily re- 
pulsed. They fell upon Sheridan — on his return from tearing 
up railways near Gordonsville, and fighting Wade Hamp- 
ton's cavalry — but, as usual, found him an ugly customer, 
and were glad to withdraw after losing five hundred prison- 
ers. They attacked another cavalry general — J. H. Wil- 
son—who had been destroying the Weldon, Southside, am 
Danville railroads, with better fortune. They captured hil 
artillery and supply wagons, many prisoners, and a larg 
number of negroes who were following him — but not until 
he had punished them severely, and had so broken their 
railways that it took two months to re-open them. 

An infantry movement by Meade to grasp and hold the 
Weldon road was repulsed, after hard fighting. The enemy, 
getting into a gap between, two corps of the Union army, 
captured standards and guns, and twenty-five hundred pris- 
oners, compelling the contraction of our left, and placing us 
on the defensive there for several weeks. 

A lull followed. After two months of terrible work the 
old troops wanted rest, and the re-enforcements required 
disciplining. On Grant's right, near Petersburg, he had 
already begun siege operations, and it was understood about 
head-quarters that no more general assaults would be mail' 
until the strength of the army should be greatly augmented. 
An officer writes of the early days of July : — 

" Captains were sometimes commanding regiments, and majors brigades. 
CC 



418 A Letter from Winfield Scott. [1864. 

The men, missing the familiar forms and voices that had led them to the 
charge, would complain that they had not their old officers to follow. More 
than one leader of a storming party was forced to say, as he came back from 
an unsuccessful attempt against the outworks of Petersburg, u My men do 
not charge as they did thirty days ago. 1 ' 

The enemy meant to tight in future only Tbehind strong 
intrenchments, and Grant said: — "To take such is a work 
of time, or else involves terrible destruction of human life." 
He reminded Northern friends that nearly all the rebel 
forces were now in two grand armies, both besieged, and 
neither daring to risk a battle outside of their fortifications ; 
that the enemy had put his last man in the field — that 
every day his troops were deserting, dying of disease and of 
wounds, and being captured, and that their loss could never 
be replaced. He added : — 

"If the rebellion is not perfectly and thoroughly crushed, 
it will be the fault and through the weakness of the people 
of the North. Be of good cheer, and rest assured that all 
will come right-" 

The veteran Winfield Scott, who still held the brevet 
rank of lieutenant-general, knew from experience in his 
younger days the embarrassments of an officer in the field, 
and would not be used to increase them. In July he wrote 
from West Point to Washburne : — 

"I heard, a short time ago, that some one had informed Lieutenant-Gen- 
eral Grant that I had spoken slightly of him as an officer. As it is probable 
that your frank may enable this letter to reach him, I beg leave to say 
through you, that I have never uttered an unkind word about him. 

"The inquiry has frequently been addressed to me, 'Do you know Gen- 
eral Grant?' I have answered that he made the campaign of Mexico with 
me, and was considered by me, and I suppose by all his brothers in commis- 
sion, a good officer, and one who attained special distinction at Molino del 
Rey. Of his more recent services, I have uniformly spoken in terms of the 
highest admiration, and added that, in my opinion, he had richly earned his 
present rank. I hope he may speedily put down the rebellion." 

Lee always had an itching to invade the North. In des- 
perate straits hitherto, he had forced the Army of the Poto- 
mac to fall back and cover Washington whenever he 
threatened it. Longstreet states that he frequently spoke of 



i8c>4.] Early Invades Maryland. 419 

"swapping queens" with Grant — capturing the national 
capital and uncovering Richmond to his adversary; but 
that Jefferson Davis would never permit it. 

Now he improved the lull by detaching Early, who, 
passing down the Shenandoah Valley, entered Maryland, 
cutting railways; capturing trains between Baltimore and 
Philadelphia ; compelling Hagerstown to pay tribute to 
him ; and defeating a Union force on the Monocacy nine 
thousand strong. He threatened Baltimore ; burned houses 
five miles from Washington, and even had a skirmish at the 
outer fortifications of the capital. Had he dashed in promptly 
with his whole force, he might have held the seat of Govern- 
ment for a few hours, and secured immense prestige for the 
rebels with foreign nations. 

The panic he caused brought a strong pressure upon 
Grant to induce him to move his army at once to Washing- 
ton. But Lee was dealing with a new man. The Lieutenant- 
General detached one of Meade's corps, and ordered another 
which had just reached Fortress Monroe from New Orleans, 
to the defense of the capital, but he did not budge from 
City Point. A correspondent visiting head-quarters, found 
him strolling among the tents, his thumbs in the arm-holes 
of his waistcoat, and his face serene as ever. 

An Aide. — "They are having a little scare in the North. 
It will do them good.'' 

Journalist. — "How large a force have the rebels in 
Maryland?'' 

Aide. — "Twenty-five to thirty thousand — raked and 
scraped from all their troops outside of Richmond. They 
will not affect operations here. Lee expected to scud 
Grant post-haste to Washington, but this siege will go 
on." 

Early, finding himself in danger, and unable to move the 
obstinate Lieutenant-General, returned to Virginia with an 
immense train of horses, cattle, hogs, sheep, and wagons 
loaded with grain, groceries, and clothing. He also carried 
away two hundred thousand dollars — a forced contribution 
from the people of Fredericksburg, Maryland, to save their 
town from the torch. But our troops fell upon his rear at 



420 General McPherson is Killed. C 1864 - 

Winchester, and after a sharp fight, captured four pieces 
of artillery and several hundred prisoners. 

Sir Charles Napier once wrote, on the eve of battle :— " If 
I survive I shall soon be with those I love ; if I fall, I shall be 
with those I have loved." A prized and trusted lieutenant 
of the General now joined those he liad loved. McPherson 
was always upon the front when battle raged ; again and 
again his large form and his splendid black charger had 
made him the mark of sharp-shooters. On the twenty-third 
of July, fighting under Sherman near Atlanta, Georgia, 
while riding alone in the woods he suddenly came upon a 
party of rebels. Turning his steed and striking in the spurs, 
he smiling touched his hat to the enemy. A dozen rifles 
replied, one minie-ball passing through him near the heart, 
He hardly spoke afterward, and in less than an hour he was 
dead. Sherman burst into tears at the sight of his lifeless 
form. Grant, learning of his death, exclaimed : — 

" The country has lost one of its best soldiers, and" (his 
voice breaking and his eyes filling) " I have lost my best 
friend." 

McPherson, only thirty-five, had won the hearty love of 
the army and the country. He was a member of the Meth- 
odist church, and brought no discredit upon his profession. 
He was the most courteous and gentle of men, never pro- 
fane, never countenancing plunder or lawlessness. Three 
months before his death,, he was to have married a young- 
lady in Baltimore, but duty had kept him in the field. 

The General received a touching letter, written from 
Clyde, Ohio, on the third of August : — 

" I hope you will pardon me for troubling you with the perusal of these 
feAV lines from the trembling hand of the aged grandmother of our beloved 
General James B. McPherson, who fell in battle. When it was announced 
at his funeral, from the public prints, that when General Grant heard of his 
death he went into his tent and wept like a child, my heart went out in 
thanks to you for the interest you manifested in him while he was with 
you. 

" I have watched his progress from infancy up. In childhood he was 
obedient and kind ; in manhood interesting, noble, and persevering, looking 
to the wants of others. Since he entered the war, others can appreciate his 
worth better than I can. 



1864.] Letter from His Aged Grandmother. 421 

" When it was announced to us by telegraph that our loved one had 
fallen, our hearts were almost rent asunder ; but when we heard the com- 
mander-in-chief could weep with us too, we felt, sir, that you have been as 
a father to him ; and this whole nation is mourning his early death. I wish 
to inform you that his remains were conducted by a kind guard to the very 
parlor where he spent a cheerful evening in 1861, with his widowed mother, 
two brothers, only sister, and his aged grandma', who is now trying to write. 
In the morning he took his leave at six o'clock, little dreaming he should fall 
by a ball from the enemy. 

" His funeral services were attended in his mother's orchard, where his 
youthful feet had often pressed the soil to gather fruit, and his remains are 
resting in the silent grave, scarce half a mile from the place of his birth. His 
grave is on an eminence but a few rods from where the funeral services were 
attended, and near the grave of his father. The grave, no doubt, will be 
marked, so that passers-by will often pause to drop a tear over the dear de- 
parted. 

"And now, dear friend, a few lines from you would be gratefully received 
by the afflicted friends. I pray that the God of battles may be with you, 
and go forth with your armies till the rebellion shall cease, the Union be re- 
stored, and the old flag wave over our entire land. 

" With much respect, I remain your friend, 

" Lydia Slocum, 
"Aged eighty-seven years and four months." 

He replied, on the tenth of August : — 

"Dear Madam: — Your very welcome letter of the third instant has 
reached me. I am glad to know the relatives of the lamented Major-General 
McPherson are aware of the more than friendship existing between him and 
myself. A nation grieves at the loss of one so dear to our nation's cause. It 
is a selfish grief, because the nation had more to expect from him than from 
almost any one living. I join in this selfish grief, and add the grief of per- 
sonal love for the departed. He formed for some time one of my military 
family. I knew him well, and to know him was but to love him. 

" It may be some consolation to you, his aged grandmother, to know that 
every officer and every soldier who served under your grandson felt the 
highest reverence for his patriotism, his zeal, his great, almost unequaled 
ability, his amiability, and all the manly virtues that can adorn a com- 
mander. Your bereavement is great, but can not exceed mine." 

The summer days wore on. Our men rested in their in- 
trenched camps, or in bivouac among stretches of cool green- 
sward, and shaded Virginia farm-houses. There was quiet 
at head-quarters. At night the General, always the last man 
to go to bed, entertained callers as long as they would stay, 
and then sauntering along the snowy tents to the quarters of 



422 "You Must Throw Away that Cigar." C 18C4 - 

Bowers and Rawlins, greeted them :— "Ah, at work still V 9 
Then he would often chat until three in the morning, upon 
all sorts of subjects, army matters usually being the last. 

In one of his daily strolls about the camps and defenses, 
he approached a commissary warehouse, guarded by negroes. 
He was suddenly stopped by one of the sable guardians :— 

Sentry.— "You must throw away that cigar, sir." 

Grant.— "Why?" 

Sentry.—" My instructions are, not to let any man pass 
my beat, who is smoking. If you want to go by you must 
throw away that cigar." 

The amused General obeyed and continued his walk. 

Upon another afternoon a long, gaunt civilian wearing 
garments of rusty black, and a stove-pipe hat, walking up 
in the rear of head -quarters, was accosted by a hostler. 

Hostler (gruffly).— "Keep out of here." 

Yisitor. — " Isn't this General Grant's tent ?" 

Hostler. — "Yes." 

Visitor (striding forward).—" Well, I reckon he will let 
me inside." 

Hostler. — " You will soon find out !" 

The agents of the Sanitary and Christian commissions, 
though of incalculable service in relieving the sufferings of 
soldiers, were unpopular at all head-quarters, perhaps, be- 
cause they found fault with every real or fancied abuse. 
As the stranger neared the tent, a guard mistook him for 
one of these grumblers : — 

Guard. — " No Sanitary folks allowed inside !" 

Visitor. — " I guess General Grant will see me." 

Guard. — " I can't let you pass, but I'll send him your 
name. What is it ?" 

Visitor. — " Abraham Lincoln. 

The veteran almost dropping his musket in surprise, 
gave the military salute, and with wide- staring eyes mo- 
tioned the Commander-in-Chief to pass on. The President 
— visiting the army with his son "Tad" and a party of 
friends, — was warmly received within, where he related 
with keen enjoyment his unexpected adventure, and the 
" little stories " of which it reminded him. 



1804.] A Mine is Exploded. 423 



CHAPTER XXXY. 



SHERIDAX'S KIDE. 



Grant's great object in going south of the James had 
been to cut his adversary's communications, and isolate the 
rebel capital from the rest of the confederacy. The move- 
ment uncovered Washington ; but the Union army was so 
near Richmond that the enemy's forces were kept busy 
at home. 

There was little rest for Lee. Sheridan, with a large 
force, cut the railways north of Richmond, and so alarmed 
him for the safety of Early, in the Shenandoah valley, that 
he detached many troops to look after the troublesome 
general of cavalry, and so weakened his Petersburg front. 

This was exactly what Grant wanted. A month earlier, 
he had begun a mine, suggested by Colonel Pleasance, of a 
Pennsylvania mining-region regiment. He pushed it forward 
from a ravine in front of Burnside' s corps for five hundred 
feet, until it was under a formidable rebel fort upon " Cem- 
etery Ridge," which proved to be a singularly appropriate 
name. The tunnel — four and a half feet high, four feet wide 
at the bottom and narrowing toward the top — was twenty 
feet under ground when it reached the enemy's work. 
Wings were cut to the right and left, forming chambers, 
which were charged with four tons of gunpowder, heavily 
tamped with wood and sand-bags. 

Meade, whose lines here were only a hundred and fifty 
yards from Lee' s, prepared to open a cannonade with every 
gun on our front, the moment the mine should be fired, 
and also to throw a storming party through the gap to 
carry a strong crest in the rear of the fort, commanding 
Petersburg. 

At half- past three, on the morning of July thirtieth, the 
fuse was lighted, and the fire disappeared, hissing in the 



424 Horrible Scenes in the Crater. [in- 

earth. But the entrance was long and damp, and the army 
waited in vain. Finally, two brave soldiers went a hundred 
feet into the gallery and relit the fuse, which had gone out 
at a splicing. 

Still the fire crept forward but slowly. Five o'clock, 
however, brought a tremendous thud, like the rumbling of 
an earthquake, repeated again and again, as successive 
chambers exploded. Instantaneously the air was darkened 
with human bodies, guns, caissons, and timbers, which rose 
mountain-high like an enormous inverted cone ; seemed 
poised in the heavens for a moment ; and then fell all around, 
like the spray of a vast infernal fountain. Portions of sev- 
eral South Carolina regiments guarding the fort, were blown 
to atoms. 

Our guns opened, and, during the heaviest artillery thun- 
der ever heard on the continent, a Union column rushed in- 
to the crater, which was six hundred feet long, sixty wide, 
and thirty deep. But the division charged with this impor- 
tant duty— unfortunately selected by lot — proved the very 
worst in Burnside's entire corps. It captured two hundred 
living prisoners; but, by some terrible mistake, halted in 
the pit instead of rushing forward upon the ridge. 

The rebels, rallying almost instantly, poured a terrible 
fire into the crater. A second (negro) division, ordered out 
to support the first, had reached it, and our troops were 
huddled together, among their dead and dying foes. A third 
division, also, was flung into the imminent deadly breach, 
and a vain attempt made to carry the crest. But a cross- 
fire from works upon both flanks, raked the intervening 
ground, and also the strip of land in the rear, between the 
blown-up fort and our intrenchments. 

The crater proved a slaughter-pen for both sides. Half- 
buried rebels cried out to the negroes, "Help! for God's 
sake, help !" Hundreds of wounded begged piteously for 
water, and many were torn in pieces by confederate and 
Union guns. 

About noon a retreat was ordered, and those who were 
fortunate enough to outlive the storm of flying missiles, got 
back to our line. The wounded lay exposed for thirty- 



iso4.] Sheridan sent to the Shenandoah. 425 

six hours, while Burnside' s request for a cessation of hos- 
tilities to relieve them was referred to Richmond. The 
rebels, meanwhile, had recaptured the fort ; and before re- 
ceiving an answer they permitted our officers to give a drink 
of brandy and water to each sufferer, in the blazing sun be- 
tween the lines. They refused to let our men approach the 
crater, lest they should see exactly what damage had been 
done, and administered themselves to the wounded, white 
and black, who were lying there. 

The next day a truce of four hours was granted. But 
few survivors remained to be succored. The negroes had 
behaved with conspicuous gallantry, and lost four times as 
many as the whites. Ten minutes after the last dead were 
buried the firing re- opened. 

The General and the Government were deeply grieved at 
this bloody failure of the most promising attempt of the 
year. An investigating board of officers, reported as the 
chief causes : that the assaulting columns were not properly 
selected, nor all properly led ; that there was no competent 
directing head on the spot ; and that the advance halted in 
the crater, when it should have hurried forward to carry 
the crest. 

Again there was trouble from the Shenandoah. Again, 
Early marching down the valley crossed the Potomac. His 
cavalry occupied the undefended town of Chambersburg, 
Pennsylvania, and demanded a ransom of half a million of 
dollars. The people were unwilling or unable to pay, and 
the place was burned, in retaliation for alleged outrages 
in Virginia, by Union troops. 

As telegraphic communication between City Point and 
Washington was frequently broken, it became of vital im- 
portance to place an able general in charge of all the troops 
guarding the capital, and the great southern highway to 
the Potomac. By this time Sheridan had left little rebel 
cavalry worthy of the name, and his fighting and raiding 
had won wide-spread fame. Grant sent him to command 
the forces watching Early. During August, and the early 
days of September, he remained near Winchester, across 
the path of the enterprising rebel. By biding his time for 



426 Great Explosion at City Point. [1864. 

weeks, until the opportunity came for a telling blow, he 
proved his discretion as he had already proved his valor. 

The General's old regiment, the Fourth regular infantry, 
which had been terribly cut up during the Wilderness cam- 
paign, was now detailed as his body-guard. It did not con- 
tain a single man who had belonged to it in the days when 
he was lieutenant and captain, but all were zealous in serv- 
ing him, and plumed themselves not a little that he began 
his career as a soldier in the " Old Fourth." 

In August, as an ordnance boat at the City Point wharves 
was discharging ammunition, one case fell to the ground and 
the whole cargo exploded, killing many men, and destroy- 
ing several steamers, and two millions of dollars' worth of 
property. 

The thundering reports shook the earth for miles, and 
planks, fragments of human bodies, and clouds of other 
missiles dropped about head- quarters like rain. Terror- 
stricken officers and men ran wildly to and fro, wondering 
if the general destruction of the universe had come. Grant 
only stepped out of his tent, took his cigar from his mouth, 
glanced calmly around, and seeing that he could do no 
good, returned quietly to his camp chair. 

A few days later he wrote to Washburne : — 

" We are progressing here slowly. The weather has been intolerably 
warm, so much so that marching troops is nearly death. I state to all citi- 
zens who visit me, that all we want now to insure an early restoration of 
the Union, is a determined unity of sentiment North. The rebels have now 
in their ranks their last man. The little boys and old men are guarding 
prisoners, and railroad bridges, and forming a good part of their garrisons 
for intrenched positions. 

" A man lost by them can not be replaced. They have robbed the cradle 
and the grave equally to get their present force. Besides what they lose in 
frequent skirmishes and battles, they are now losing from desertions and other 
causes, at least one regiment per day. 

u With this drain upon them, the end is visible, if we be but true to 
ourselves. Their only hope now is in a divided North. This might give 
them re-enforcements from Tennessee, Kentucky, Maryland, and Missouri, 
while it would weaken us. With the draft quietly enforced the enemy 
would become despondent, and would make but little resistance. 

" 1 have no doubt the enemy are exceedingly anxious to hold out until 
after the Presidential election. They have many hopes from its effects. 



1864.] Fighting on the Weldon Railway. 427 

They hope for a counter-revolution ; they hope for the election of the pe 
candidate; in fact, like Micawber, they hope for something to turn up. 

"Our peace friends if they expect peace from separation, are much mis- 
taken. It would be but the beginning of war, with thousands of Northern 
men joining the South, because of our disgrace in allowing separation. To 
have i peace on any terms,' the South would demand a restoration of their 
slaves already freed. They would demand indemnity for losses Bustaii 
and they would demand a treaty which would make the North slave-hunt 
for the South. They would demand pay or the restoration of every slave 
escaping to the North." 

There were still fears that Lee had sent Early troops 
enough to endanger Sheridan and the capital, but the 
General announced his determination not to be seduced 
away from the front of Petersburg. The President re- 
plied : — * 

" I have seen your dispatch expressing your unwillingness to break your 
hold where you are. Neither am I willing. Hold on with a bull-dog grip, 
and chew and choke as much as possible." 

Grant did, however, send a force north of the James, 
which, though it failed to break the rebel lines, captured 
several hundred prisoners, and kept Lee from forwarding 
any more troops to Early. The heavy force, too, which Lee 
was compelled to throw out to meet it weakened his line, 
and made another opportunity on the south side. He could 
not be dislodged while holding his railway communications 
south of Petersburg, so on the eighteenth Grant sent War- 
ren's corps to get possession of the Weldon road. Warren 
seized it, and the enemy made desperate but fruitless attempts 
to drive him away. On the twenty-fifth Hancock reached 
the railway at Reams Station, still farther south, but the 
vigilant enemy taking him in the flank, and capturing many 
prisoners compelled him to withdraw. Our entire los» - 
reached four thousand. 

Still Grant obtained a firm grip on the road, forcing the 
rebels back until they were only three miles from Peters- 
burg, and advancing his own lines within half a mile of 
them. The advantage had cost heavily, but it was of great 
value. From this time to the end of the war, the most 

* August seventeenth. 



428 Sherman Captures Atlanta. I 1864 - 

desperate fighting was over Lee's communications. Wliere 
tides of peaceful travel now flow, the railways were fringed 
with graves. 

In August a democratic national convention at Chicago 
resolved that the Avar was a failure, and as a logical sequence 
nominated George B. McClellan for the Presidency. The 
North was a good deal discouraged. Leading republicans, 
even, who had been very sanguine at tin- outset, balf feared 
that the war teas a failure. 

But the skies began to brighten. The first ray came all 
the way from Georgia. Sherman starting in May simul- 
taneously with Grant, had foughl several brilliant battles, 
in one of which the rebel bishop-general, Leonidas Polk, was 
killed. Sherman drove Johnston to the defensesof Atlanta. 
and on the first of September captured that city — next to 
Richmond the most important in the South. His army at 
the beginning was a hundred thousand strong. His losses 
during the campaign reached about thirty thousand. 

News of the fall of Atlanta excited universal joy in the 
North. The President in a public order tendered the thanks 
of a grateful nation to Sherman and his soldiers. By Grant's 
order, at midnight in front of Petersburg, thirty-six shotted 
guns from each battery did the double duty of a salute and 
a bombardment, while the bands in the rear played " Hail 
Columbia," "The Star- Spangled Banner," and "The Red, 
White, and Blue," — all to the great wonder of tin 1 enemy. 

A draft was going on to till up our reduced armies. 
Grant wrote * to Stanton : — 

" We ought to have the whole number of men called for by the President 
in the shortest possible time. Prompt action in filling our armies will have 
more effect upon the enemy than a victory over them. They profess to 
believe, and make their men believe, there is such a party North in favor of 
recognizing Southern independence that the draft can not be enforced. Let 
them be undeceived. Deserters come into our lines daily, who tell us that 
the men are nearly universally tired of war, and that desertions would be 
much more frequent, but that they believe peace will be negotiated after the 
fall elections. The enforcement of the draft, and the prompt filling up of 
our armies, will save the shedding of blood to an immense degree." 

* September thirteenth. 



isg4] Sheridan is instructed to "Go in." 429 

Three days later the rebel cavalry getting into Meade's 
rear, at Reams' Station, captured and drove back into their 
lines twenty -five hundred beeves, which grazed waiting 
for the butchers. It was a grand haul of supplies for the 
confederates, and many Northerners relished the joke. 

Early's raids from the Shenandoah still obstructed the 
Baltimore and Ohio Railway, and threatened Maryland and 
Pennsylvania. Grant knowing Sheridan's fondness for 
battle feared to order an attack without further knowledge. 
So he visited Sheridan,* and examined the ground for him- 
self. 

The General's final report says :— 

" I met him at Charleston, and he pointed out so distinctly how each 
army lay ; what he could do the moment he was authorized ; and expressed 
such confidence of success, that I saw there were but two words of instruc- 
tion necessary — ' Go in! 1 " 

This was as laconic as Wellington's " Sail or sell" 
to an officer who begged leave of absence on being ordered 
to India, or Napier's "Peccant"—" I have Scinde." 

Sheridan did go in, and attacked vigorously, f Early, 
concentrating upon his center, attempted to cut his army in 
twain, and capture a ridge in his rear. Sheridan let him 
break the line, but it proved a deadly ambush. Early 
penetrated almost to the ridge, when waiting brigades sud- 
denly fell upon his flanks, capturing whole regiments, and 
the rebel army was soon flying. A soldier on the ground 
pictures the cavalry general : — 

tk A mounted officer, followed by a single orderly, galloped up to us. As 
he reined in his horse, a rebel shell— one of the many which were now tear- 
ing through the right— burst within a few feet of him, actually seeming to 
crown his head with its deadly halo of smoke and burning fragments. 
1 That's all right, boys,' he said, with a careless laugh ; w no matter, we can 
lick them.' The men laughed ; a whisper ran along the ranks that it was 
Sheridan, and they burst into a spontaneous cheer. ' What regiment is that?' 
he asked, and dashed off toward the firing." 

He wrote as vehemently as he fought, telegraphing 
from the field to Washington : — 

* September sixteenth. * September nineteenth. 



430 He sends Early " whirling" Southward. [1864. 

"We have just sent the enemy whirling through Winchester, and are after 
them to-morrow. This army behaved splendidly. We captured two thousand 
five hundred to three thousand prisoners, five pieces of artillery, nine battle- 
flags, and all the rebel dead and wounded. Their wounded in Winchester 
amount to some three thousand." 

Night only had saved the enemy from annihilation. 
The next day our pursuing army overtook Early, captured 
many of his men, and drove him through the gaps of the 
Blue Ridge. 

The Shenandoah Valley seemed to be clear again, so 
most of Sheridan's troops returned to the Army of the 
Potomac. Several of his staff had been killed by guerrillas. 
His cavalry, which rather enjoyed the rebel epithet of 
" Sheridan's robbers," destroyed thousands of barns filled 
with wheat, hay, and farming implements, burned mills, 
drove out all the cattle and sheep they could find, and made 
the rich valley no longer capable of sustaining rebel armies 
lying in wait to spring upon the capital. 

As the general was falling back toward the Potomac, 
however, a detachment of rebel horse harassed his rear. He 
halted for a single day, and, in his own language,* " drove 
it back on a jump" for twenty-six miles. 

The War Department formally thanked him ; the Presi- 
dent made him a brigadier in the regular army ; Grant fired 
a salute of one hundred guns in his honor ; and under en- 
thusiasm inspired by this victory, the Union party conduct- 
ed its campaign with new confidence and vigor. 

Grant heartily approved of the laws conferring the right 
of suffrage upon soldiers, but determined to keep the army 
free from a heated political canvass. He wrote to Stanton 
on the twenty-seventh of September : — 

" The exercise of the right of suffrage hy the officers and soldiers of 
armies in the field, is a novel thing; it has, I helieve, generally been consid- 
ered dangerous to constitutional liberty and subversive of military discipline. 
But our circumstances are novel and exceptional. A very large proportion 
of the legal voters of the United States are now either under arms in the 

* Sheridan had as little patience as Grant with high-sounding military phrases. 
To a compliment upon his " superb strategy," he replied : — " Oh, all a man wants to 
do, is to know his ground and fight his men." 



1864.J Grant's Views on Soldiers Voting. 431 

field, or in hospitals, or otherwise engaged in the military service of tbe Uni- 
ted States. Most of these men are not regular soldiers in the strict sense of 
that term; still less are they mercenaries, who give their services to the Gov- 
ernment simply for its pay, having little understanding of political questioi 
and feeling little or no interest in them. On the contrary, tiny are A::. 
can citizens, having still their homes and social and political tics binding 
them to the States and districts from which they came, and to which they 
expect to return. They have left their homes temporarily, to BOStain the 
cause of their country in the hour of its trial. In performing this Bacred duty, 
they should not he deprived of a most precious privilege. They have a- much 
right to demand that their votes shall he counted in the choice of their 
rulers, as those citizens who remain at home. Nay more, for they ha\ , sac- 
rificed more for their country. 

" I state these reasons in full, for the unusual thing of allowing armies in 
the field to vote, that I may urge on the other hand, that nothing more than 
the fullest exercise of this right should he allowed; for any thin- oot abso- 
lutely necessary to this exercise, can not but be dangerous to the liberties of 
the country. The officers and soldiers have every means of understanding 
the questions before the country. The newspapers are freely circulated, and 
so, I believe, are the documents prepared by both parties to set forth tin- mer- 
its and claims of their candidates. 

"Beyond this, nothing whatever should be allowed. No political meet- 
ings, no harangues, from soldier or citizen, and no canvassing of camps 
regiments for votes. 

"I see not why a single individual, not belonging to the armies, should 
be admitted into their lines to deliver tickets. In my opinion, the tickets 
should be furnished by the chief provost-marshal of each army ; by them to 
the provost-marshal (or some other appointed officer) of each brigade orri 
ment, who shall, on the day of the election, deliver tickets, irrespectivi 
party, to whoever may call for them. If, however, it shall he deemed exped 
to admit citizens to deliver tickets, then it should be most positively prohib- 
ited that such citizens should electioneer, harangue, or canvass the regim 
in any way. Their business should he, and only be, to distribute on a i 
tain fixed day, tickets to whoever may call for them. 

"In the case of those States whose soldiers vote by proxy, proper State 
authority could be given to officers belonging to regiments so rotin 
receive and forward votes. 

11 As it is intended that all soldiers entitled to vote shall ■ that 

privilege according to their own convictions of right, unmolested and unre- 
stricted, there will be no objection to each party sending to arm 
access, a number of respectable gentlemen to see that these views are fully 
carried out. To the army at Atlanta, and those armies on the sea-coasl 
Newbern to New Orleans, not to exceed three citizens of each party should 
be admitted." 

In September, a railway was completed from City Point 



43:2 His Operations in September. L 1864 - 

to Grant's front, giving him admirable facilities for supply- 
ing the army during the rainy season. It ran over a route 
of nature's grading, crossing deep ravines and ascending 
sharp hills. 

His lines were twenty miles long. lie was continually 
feeling the enemy. Late in September, on his right, Butler 
threatened Richmond from the north, while on his left Ord 
attacked the works south of Petersburg. Ord's negro sol- 
diers charged with great gallantry through the ditch and up 
into a fort, climbing over each others shoulders. From 
the strong positions captured by both these advances, Lee 
desperately but vainly attempted to dislodge our troops. 
He retaliated* upon Grant's extreme right, driving back 
Kautz's cavalry, capturing artillery and prisoners ; but the 
infantry stopped him like a Avail. 

Artillery firing was kept up along the entire line, though 
hottest in front of Petersburg, at Fort Sedgwick, which some 
soldiers named the u Sore Point," and others "Fort Hell/' 
Various expeditions were sent out, which kept the enemy 
anxious and harassed. 

The Shenandoah Valley witnessed more important opera- 
tions. For the last time, Early moved forward to a new 
position at Fisher s Hill, and Longstreet went to re-enforce 
him. In obedience to a telegram from the War Depart- 
ment, Sheridan started to Washington for a consultation. 
On the way, he received a dispatch from Wright, whom 
he had left in command, announcing that our officers had 
read this message going from Longstreet to Early on rebel 
signal Ha^rs : — 

"Be ready to move as soon as my force joins you, and we will crush 
Sheridan. 1 ' 

Sheridan, though still incredulous, ordered back his 
cavalry — on the way to the Army of the Potomac — and 
instructed Wright to be very vigilant. He spent only six 
hours in Washington, and then started back. 

Early on the foggy morning of October nineteenth, the 
» 

* October seventh. 



1864.] Early Attacks Sheridan's Army. 

rebels, who had crept up and spent the night within six- 
hundred yards of Wright's unguarded front, charged, veil- 
ing, forward with impetuous vigor. These were no! 
Early's demoralized men, but Longstreet's splendid sol- 
diers. They doubled up the Union line, swarmed into the 
trenches, captured the camps, with twenty-four pieces of 
artillery, and sent the Union troops flying down the valley 
for five miles. 

A re-enforcement was coming — a re-enforcement of one 
man ! Sheridan, who had slept at Winchester, twenty miles 
from his camp, breakfasted early, mounted his showy hors . 
and started leisurely for the front. Half a mile out In* began 
to meet frightened stragglers. Telling the twenty tr< ><>]>< -r- 
who escorted him to keep up if they could, he dashed the 
spurs into his coal-black steed, and flew over the ground. 

Larger and larger grew the sickening crowd. Withoui 
a word of anger or profanity, and without checking 
charger, he swung his hat, exclaiming : — 

"Face the other way, boys ; face the other way. We' i •■ 
going back to our camps ; we're going to lick them out of 
their boots !" 

They turned back, with child-like confidence in the gen- 
eral, and when his foaming horse dashed into the new line 
which Wright had established, the troops, with one accord, 
gave him roaring cheers of welcome. He galloped along 
the front, rectifying the formation, and assuring the men : — 

"We're going back to our camps ; we're going to get a 
twist on them — the tightest twist you ever saw. We D 
have all those camps and guns back again." 

Just as the line was adjusted the pursuing enemy came 
up again, but was met and instantly checked by a solid line 
of infantry. 

"Thank God for that!" exclaimed Sheridan. "We'll 
get a tight twist on them pretty soon — the tightest twist they 



ever saw." 



This was at 3 p. m. An hour later our army moved for- 
ward. Early enveloped its right to strike its flank. 
dan instantly ordered a charge against the open angle, which 
dashed right through the enemy's line, cutting off and 

DD 



434 Sheridan Arrives and Routs Him. D864. 

capturing the flanking force, while a general advance swept 
back the whole rebel army, not only regaining our lost guns, 
but taking Early's camps, caissons, artillery, ambulances, 
and thousands of prisoners. 

The country was stirred to the heart. Grant telegraphed 
to the Secretary of War : — 

"I had a salute of one hundred guns fired from each of the armies here. 
* * * * Turning what bid fair to be a disaster into a glorious victory, 
stamps Sheridan, what I have always thought him, one of the ablest of 
generals.''' 1 

Lincoln promptly promoted him to a major-generalship 
in the regular army, made vacant by McClellan's resigna- 
tion, and publicly thanked him for "organizing his routed 
army, averting a great national disaster, and achieving a 
brilliant victory, for the third time within thirty days." His 
forces never exceeded thirty thousand effectives ; but he had 
captured thirteen thousand prisoners during his most bril- 
liant campaign, with a loss of less than seventeen thousand 
in killed, wounded, and missing. Early' s aggregate losses 
probably reached twenty- seven thousand men, besides one 
hundred pieces of artillery, many colors, a great amount of 
camp equipage, and thousands of small-arms. 

From that hour, in any public meeting in the North, 
Sheridan' s name elicited hearty cheers. The victory made 
Lincoln's re-election a foregone conclusion, and checked 
the denunciations and slanders which had poured upon 
him — a torrent never equaled in American history, ex- 
cept by the obloquy which assailed Washington during his 
second, term. Mrs. Grant afterward related, that though 
she knew Mr. Grant to be "a very firm man," and likely to 
fight the war through successfully, these newspaper charges 
against the President sorely disturbed her, until she told 
her husband something of her fears. He replied emphati- 
cally : — 

" Lincoln is just the man of all others whom the country 
needs, and his defeat would be a great national calamity." 

"After that," said she, "I knew that it must be all 
right, and that my fears were groundless. I suppose the 



1864 1 "Up feom the South — 435 

trouble was that I had been reading the wrong newspa- 
pers !" 

Early was used up. Grant was able to draw back 
nearly all Sheridan's troops to the Army of the Potomac. 
The cavalry general had become the nation's hero. Bu- 
chanan Reid sang his exploit, in a strain, now familiar to 
every school-boy, which echoes the ring of the charger's 
hoofs, and rolls forward at the rider's dashing pace :— 

Up from the south at break of clay, 

Bringing to Winchester fresh dismay, 

The affrighted air with a shudder bore, 
Like a herald in haste, to the chieftain's door, 
The terrible grumble, and rumble, and roar, 
Telling the battle was on once more, 

And Sheridan twenty miles away. 

And wider still those billows of war 

Thundered along the horizon's bar; 

And louder yet into Winchester rolled 

The roar of that red sea uncontrolled, 

Making the blood of the listener cold, 

As he thought of the stake in that fiery fray, 

And Sheridan twenty miles away. 

But there is a road from Winchester town, 

A good broad highway leading down; 

And there, through the flush of the morning light, 

A steed as black as the steeds of night 

Was seen to pass, as with eagle flight, 

As if he knew the terrible need ; 

He stretched away with his utmost speed ; 

Hills rose and fell; but his heart was gay, 

With Sheridan fifteen miles away. 

Still sprung from those swift hoofs, thundering south, 
The dust, like smoke from the cannon's mouth; 
Or the trail of a comet, sweeping faster and faster, 
Foreboding to traitors the doom of disaster. 
The heart of the steed and the heart of the master 
Were beating like prisoners assaulting their walls, 
Impatient to be where the battle-field calls ; 
Every nerve of the charger was strained to full play, 
With Sheridan only ten miles away. 



436 At Break of Day." L 186 *- 

T ruler hi? spurning feet the road 

Like an arrowy Alpine river flowed, 

And the landscape sped away behind 

Like an ocean flying before the wind, 

And the steed, like a bark fed with furnace ire, 

Swept on. with his wild eye full of fire. 

But lo! he is nearing his heart's desire : 

He is snuffing the smoke of the roaring fray, 

With Sheridan only five miles away. 

The first that the general saw were the groups 

Of stragglers, and then the retreating troops. 

"What was done ': what to do I a glance told him both. 

Then striking his spurs, with a terrible oath, 

He dashed down the line, 'mid a storm of huz. - 

And the wave of retreat cheeked its course there, because 

The sight of the master compelled it to pause. 

"With foam and with dust, the black charger was gr 

By the flash of his eye. and the red nostril's play, 

He seemed to the whole g .' army t<> say, 

'•I have brought you Sheridan all the * 

From Winchester down to save the day'." 

Hurrah ! hurrah for Sheridan ! 
Hurrah ! hurrah for horse and man ! 

And when their statues are placed on high, 
Under the dome of the Union sky. 
The American soldiers' Temple of Fame; 
There with the glorious general's name, 
Be it said, in letters both bold and bright, 

"Here is the steed that saved the day, 
By carrying Sheridan into the fight. 

From Winchester, twenty miles away!*' 



13 ^] Graxt refuses to Argue with Lee. 437 



CHAPTER XXXVI. 



THE BEGIXXIXG OF THE END. 



The rebels had steadily denied our right to arm contra- 
bands, and threatened to kill any who should fall into their 
clutches. It required less courage to talk about such a two- 
edged sword than to handle it ; but. capturing several of 
Butler's negro soldiers, who were digging a canal at Dutch. 
Gap to cut off a long stretch of the James River, they 
refused them the treatment accorded to white prisoners, and 
set them at work on fortifications under fire of the Union 
£uns. 

Butler promptly retaliated by placing a number of cap- 
tured officers upon his exposed works under rebel fire : and 
wrote Lee that he should keep them there until the negroes 
were treated as prisoners of war. As these officers repre- 
sented the slave interest, the aristocracy, the confederacv 
itself, this made a sensation in Richmond, and the colored 
captives were instantly taken from the dangerous position 
and given the quarters and rations of white prisoners — poor 
enough at best. Lee * explained in a letter to Grant that 
they had been employed on the fortifications through a mis- 
take, which was promptly corrected when discovered. He 
also discoursed at length on slavery and State rights. Grant 
preferred the sword to the pen. and. while quite willing to 
light, declined to argue. He replied : — 

"I shall always regret the necessity of retaliating for wrongs done onr 
soldiers, but regard it my duty toproi I U person* ed into the army 

of the United States, regardless of color or nationality. When acknowl- 
edged soldiers by the Government are captured, they must be treated - 
prisoners of war, or such treatment as they receive will be inflicted upon an 
equal number of prisoners held by us. 

'•I have nothing to do with the discussion of the slavery question; 

* October nineteenth. 



438 End of the active Fall Campaign. [1864. 

therefore decline answering the arguments adduced to show the right to 
return to former owners such negroes as are captured from our armies." 

A Kentucky cousin of the General, who had entered the 
confederate service, and was now prisoner of war, near 
Baltimore, wrote to him asking to be paroled. But the 
enemy held thirty thousand Northern soldiers and citizens, 
and our Government was declining to exchange, on the 
ground that the shortest way to end the war was to keep 
as many rebel soldiers as possible out of the field. It was 
a terrible policy; for Union prisoners in the South were 
dying by thousands for lack of proper food and shelter. 
But it was the policy, and Grant refused to make an excep- 
tion in favor of his relative. 

During the last days of October Meade crossed Hatcher 1 s 
Run, and penetrated within six miles of the South-side 
Railway, but Lee's fortifications proved too strong, and 
compelled him to withdraw. On the return the enemy 
struck his force in a little gap between two corps causjng 
severe loss. At the same time Butler making an attack on 
the north, was also repulsed. Thenceforth, until spring, 
our army did little but extend its lines, and send raids 
against Lee' s communications. 

The campaign had taught both South and North some- 
thing of the General's sleepless energy and determination. 
He had hammered away, East and West, wherever a blow 
could be put in, until the rebels were hoping against 
hope. All their after resistance was a needless sacrifice of 
life. It had this good effect, however, that when Lee's 
army was finally overcome peace was instantly established. 
Had it surrendered earlier, guerrilla warfare might have 
continued for years in mountain regions. 

Says Greeley, in his "American Conflict" : — 

" Grant's conduct in this campaign was not satisfactory to the confederate 
critics, who gave a decided preference to the strategy of McClellan. 1 ' 

It was equally unsatisfactory to Northern peace men, 
who, though overwhelmingly beaten at the Presidential 
election, continued to denounce the commander of our 



1864.] Humor of the Soldiers in the Field. 439 

armies. But the masses looked hopefully forward, and 
seemed more earnest than ever in their determination to 
suppress the rebellion at whatever cost. 

Will the student of history, a millennium hence, compre- 
hend why hundreds of thousands — ignorant and cultured, 
rich and poor, adopted and native — with no personal in- 
terest at stake, eagerly gave their lives that there might be 
one, not two governments, and freedom, not slavery, on the 
American continent? Or will he wonder, as we do, in 
reading of wars long past, that men should find patriotism, 
love of adventure, and regard for the predominant feelings 
of the hour, so much dearer to them than love of life \ 

In the Army of the Potomac there seemed to be a gay 
recklessness among the young men, which was peculiarly 
American, and which I never witnessed elsewhere. More 
than once* I heard a young lieutenant who messed with me 
say to his servant : — 

"John, fill up the bath-tub to-night, and lay out my 
finest under-clothing and my nicest shirt. There' s likely to 
be a fight to-morrow, John, and nothing in the world is 
so shocking as a dirty or an ill-dressed corpse. 

Still he was a generous, warm-hearted boy, with rev- 
erence enough at bottom for patriotism, integrity, and affec- 
tion. His broad jesting came only from the surface. A 
little of the same tone seemed to pervade the entire army. 
The following story passed from camp to camp with keen 
relish :— Conundrums and "sells" were so common, that 
soldiers were always looking out for them. A young pri- 
vate, who supposed himself mortally wounded, was stretched 
upon the field, when up rushed a chaplain in the plain 
blouse and slouched hat of an enlisted man, and bearing no 
sign of his sacred calling. 

"My friend," he asked abruptly, "do you know who 
died for you?" 

"Look here, stranger," replied the boy, raising himself 
up a little upon his elbow and speaking with great earnest- 
ness, "this is no time to be asking conundrums !" 

* 1863-4. 



440 Hood Proposes to Invade the North. [ l864 - 

A London magazine, discussing the sense of humor among 
different nations, declared that no well-regulated mind could 
find the least amusement in the anecdote ; "but our troops 
laughed long and heartily over it. 

Sherman was performing brilliant exploits. Jefferson 
Davis had removed the able Joseph E. Johnston from the 
command of the Western confederate army, and substituted 
J. B. Hood, who got in Sherman's rear to cut his communi- 
cations — a wonderful piece of strategy, as Sherman was just 
abandoning them altogether. The rebel President said in a 
speech at Macon, Georgia : — 

"We must march into Tennessee. There we will draw 
twenty thousand to thirty thousand troops to our standard, 
and so strengthened we must push the enemy hurl: to the 
Ohio:' 

The moment Sherman suspected this plan he declared : — 

"If Hood will only go north, I will furnish him with 
rations for the trip." 

Grant's final report says of Davis : — 

"He exhibited the weakness of supposing that an army that had been 
been beaten and fearfully decimated in a vain attempt at the defensive could 
successfully undertake the otfensive against the army that had so often de- 
feated it." 

And of Hood : — 

"He continued his move northward, which seemed to me to be leading 
to his certain doom. At all events, had I had the power to command both 
armies, I should not have changed the orders tinder which he seemed to le 
acting.'''' 

Sherman sent Thomas north to take care of this rebel 
movement. He had already telegraphed Grant, * asking 
permission to send back his wounded and worthless, and 
with his effective army " move through Georgia, smashing 
things to the sea." Grant replied : — 

"If you are satisfied the trip to the sea-coast can be made, holding the 
line of the Tennessee River firmly, you may make it." 

♦October eleventh. 



isg4.] "How Sherman Marched down to the Sea." 441 

Hood left the whole South uncovered ; and Grant' s 
lieutenant started* on the most daring and notable move- 
ment of the war. Song and story will always delight to 
tell "how Sherman marched down to the sea," cutting a 
swath fifty miles wide through the confederacy. Said the 
London Times : — 

" Since the great Duke of Marlborough turned his back upon the Dutch, 
and plunged heroically into Germany to fight the famous battle of Blenheim, 
military history has recorded no stranger marvel than the mysterious expe- 
dition of General Sherman, on an unknown route against an undiscoverable 
enemy. 1 ' 

Another British paper declared :— 

"He has done one of the most brilliant or foolish things ever performed 
by a military leader. If successful, he will add a new chapter to the theory 
and practice of modern warfare." 

At Milledgeville, the capital of Georgia, he halted for 
several days, sleeping in his blankets on the floor of the 
executive mansion, from which the governor fled on 
his approach. As the rebel legislature had followed the 
governor, our jolly soldiers organized a mock legislature 
in its deserted hall, passing bills and resolutions ; and 
when a courier announced "The Yankees are coming!" 
springing up and tumbling over each other in a wild rush 
for the door. 

Sherman's army had a few skirmishes with militia, but 
encountered no formidable force ; and, finally, in splendid 
condition, and followed by a cloud of negroes who dark- 
ened the landscape, it reached the sea-coast, after a march 
of three hundred miles within the enemy's lines. A few 
days later its leader telegraphed the President : — 

" I beg to present you, as a Christmas gift, the city of Savannah, with 
one hundred and fifty guns and plenty of ammunition, and about twenty- 
five thousand bales of cotton." 

On the last day of November, Hood, in pursuance of his 
mad design to invade the North, fiercely attacked Schofield, 

* November fourteenth. 



442 Thomas's Splendid Victory at Nashville. [ 

who, with fifteen thousand men, held Thomas's front at 
Franklin, eighteen miles south of Nashville. Through the 
afternoon, and for hours after dark, the rebels charged again 

and again with fruitless gallantry. They lost six thousand 
men; the Union soldiers, who fought in intrenchments, only 
twenty-three hundred. But Hood's whole army con- 
fronted Schofield's little force, and he fell back during the 
night. 

The national army was intrenched three miles south of 
Nashville. Hood established his line within t\v<> miles of it. 
Days of skirmishing followed, causing intense excitement 
in the city. Business was suspended, and citizens shoul- 
dered muskets, or went to work with the spade. 

It has been truly said of Thomas, that no friend ever had 
to apologize for any of his official ads. Grant reposed the 
utmost confidence in him; but after ordering him several 
times to move upon Hood, grew impatient lest the rebel 
general should advance into Kentucky. Thomas, by nature 
a defensive rather than an offensive general, had great diffi- 
culties to contend with which could not be comprehended 
at a distance. Finally, when about to attack, he was stopped 
by an intensely cold storm, which covered the country with 
glare ice. All his corps commanders held the opinion that 
moving before the weather moderated would involve im- 
minent peril of defeat. 

After long delays, Grant started for Washington to 
relieve him and put another general in his place, or go 
West himself and superintend affairs. At the capital, 
however,* he found a dispatch, announcing that Thomas 
had attacked. The battle, lasting two days, ended in the 
utter destruction of the rebels. Hood had entered Ten- 
nessee with a splendid army, fifty thousand strong ; he re- 
tired southward with only half that number of demoralized 
troops. Thomas captured thirteen thousand prisoners, and 
seventy-two pieces of artillery, received two thousand de- 
serters, and followed up his victory by a pursuit of unpre- 
cedented vigor. Grant says, in his final report : — 

* December fifteenth. 



1864.] Butler's Failure at Fort Fisher. 



443 



11 1 was delighted. All my fears and apprehensions were dispelled. I am 
not yet satisfied but that General Thomas, immediately upon the appearance 
of Hood before Nashville, and before he had time to fortify, should have 
moved out with his whole force and given him battle, instead of waiting to 
remount his cavalry, which delayed him until the inclemency of the weather 
made it impracticable to attack earlier than he did. But his final defeat of 
Hood teas so complete, that it will le accepted as a vindication of that dis- 
tinguished officer's judgment.' 1 '' 

The magnificent victory did not electrify the North like 
the dashing movements of Sherman and Sheridan, but it 
"won for the modest Thomas a major-generalship in the 
regular army, and the steadfast affection of the people. 
Friends in Cincinnati afterward proposed to present him with 
a house ; but he declined the gift, on the ground that, while 
only doing his duty, he had been amply paid and generously 
rewarded by the Government. 

Wilmington, North Carolina, was the chief port left to 
rebel blockade-runners for bringing in munitions and sup- 
plies, and taking out cotton. The nature of the ground at 
the mouth of Cape Fear River rendered it impossible for the 
navy to close its harbor. On the thirteenth of December, 
under orders from the Lieutenant-Gfeneral, Butler sent an 
expedition against Fort Fisher, which protected it, the 
navy co-operating under Porter. Grant directed that Weit- 
zel — a professional soldier — should command the infantry, 
and did not expect Butler, who was in charge of the 
department, to go in person. He went, however, and his 
attempt failed. He exploded a powder-boat within four 
hundred yards of the rebel fort. Of its effects, Grant 
reports : — 

"It would seem, from the notice taken of it in the Southern papers, that 
the enemy were never enlightened as to the object of the explosion, until 
they were informed by the Northern press!" 

During a bombardment from Porter, Butler landed his 
troops, but after a reconnoissance declared that it would be 
butchery to assault, and soon withdrew to the James. 

The General was bitterly disappointed, and — obtain- 
ing permission from the Government — removed Butler and 
placed Ord at the head of the department. A few days 



444 Grant in Washington and New York. [is65. 

later, * a land force under General Terry gallantly assaulted 
and captured the fort, with a loss of only six hundred men. 
On the last night of the eventful year, Grant sat until 
nearly daylight in the tent of his friend Bowers, talking 
upon various subjects, but chiefly on the events, campaigns, 
and prospects for 1865. He was in excellent spirits in those 
days, and thought the confederates more despondent than 
ever before. In a private letter, f he had laid great stress 
upon the fact that they could no more recruit their army 
without resort to the negro, and added : — 

"Him they are afraid of, and they will never use him unless as a last 
desperate alternative. * * * The immense majority which Mr. Lincoln has 
received is worth more to us than a victory in the field, both in its effects on 
the rebels, and in its foreign influence." 

Lincoln's overwhelming re-election was, indeed, the dead- 
liest blow the enemy had yet received. 

During the winter, the General paid a visit to the North. 
Congress was in session, and one day he entered the hall 
of the House. That body immediately took a recess of five 
minutes, to enable members to pay their respects to him. 
After Speaker Colfax called it to order again, Schenck of 
Ohio said : — 

" In order that the representatives of the people and all loyal persons 
present may have a better opportunity of making the acquaintance, at least 
by sight, of the Lieutenant-General, I move that he be invited for a moment 
to the stand." 

The report of the Congressional Globe continues : — 

" Lieutenant-General Grant was conducted to the speaker's desk, amid 
general applause, and took the stand on the left of the speaker. 

" The Speaker. — Gentlemen of the House of Representatives : I have the 
honor of introducing to you this day our heroic defender in the field, the 
Lieutenant-General of the armies of the United States, Ulysses S. Grant. 
[Great applause on the floor and in the galleries.] 

"The Lieutenant-General bowed to the House, and then withdrew." 

In the Senate he was received with equal attention. His 
plain manners and garb were remarked by the grave and 
reverend seigniors, and one commented : — 

* January fifteenth. | November thirteenth. 




MRS. GRANT, 1808. 



18G5.] Philadelphia^ Present Him a House. 445 

' ' Why, even a second lieutenant in my part of the coun- 
try dresses a great deal better, and puts on a great many 
more airs !" 

He spent a few days in New York, which he had not 
revisited since his return from California, ten years earlier. 
He was beset with callers, and overwhelmed witli atten- 
tions. He paid a visit to the veteran of the Mexican Avar, 
who received him cordially, and gave him a copy of his 
autobiography, just issued, first writing upon a fly-leaf: — 

" From tlie oldest to the ablest general in the world.* 

" Winfield Scott." 

Citizens of Philadelphia, gratified at Grant's purpose of 
making his future home among them, presented to him a 
completely furnished residence on Chestnut Street, between 
Twentieth and Twenty-first. To their letter he replied :— 

" It is with feelings of gratitude and pride that I accept this substantial 
testimony of esteem from your loyal citizens; — gratitude, because it is an 
evidence of deep-set determination on the part of a large number of citizens 
that the war shall go on until the Union is restored; pride, that my humble 
efforts in so great a cause should attract such a token from a city of strangers 
to me. I will not predict a day when we shall have peace again with the 
Union restored. But that this day will come, is as sure as the rising of to- 
morrow's sun. I have never doubted this in the darkest day of this dark 
and terrible rebellion. Until that happy day comes, my family will occupy 
and enjoy your magnificent present. But until then, I do not expect nor 
desire to see much of the enjoyments of a home fireside." 

Returning, he took with him Mrs. Grant and one of the 
younger children, who remained at City Point until the 
final surrender. During his absence his tent had been re- 
placed by a rough log-cabin, which he occupied as head- 
quarters until the end of the conflict, sleeping on a plain 
camp cot, and eating with his staff at a rough table. The 
cabin is preserved in Fairmount Park, Philadelphia. 

The new year opened. The confederacy, shorn of its 
fair proportions, retained less than half its original territory. 
Our line along the Mississippi cut it in twain, and Sherman 

* Two generations before, Frederick the Great had sent a sword to George 
Washington, inscribed :—" From the oldest general in the world to the grlltest." 



446 TintEE Rebel Peace Commissioners [i865. 

had plowed a broad furrow from Chattanooga to the sea. 
Mobile, Charleston, and Wilmington were its only remaining 
seaports. 

Still to a superficial observer it stood imposing and in- 
destructible. The tone of its newspapers was never more 
confident ; but the very vehemence of their daily reiterations 
that they would never, never, never succumb, tended to 
excite suspicion. The confederates had made a wonderful 
fight. Of course, they found the money question the most 
difficult one. Until November, 1861, their currency re- 
mained at par; afterward it steadily depreciated. The 
amounts required to bny one dollar in gold, were : — 

December, 1861, $ 1 20 

" 1862, 3 00 

" 1863, 19 00 

" 1864, 50 00 

March, 1865, 60 00 

Jefferson Davis, in many respects an able leader, was 
also a very obstinate one. He had none of that humility 
of opinion, that instinctive respect for the popular will 
which characterized Abraham Lincoln. Always in retain- 
ing an inefficient cabinet, and generally in assigning officers 
to high military commands, he flew in the face of public 
opinion. 

But the party clamoring vaguely for " an honorable 
peace" — though by no means avowing its readiness to sub- 
mit to the Union — had grown too large to be longer ignored. 
So by Davis's appointment, Alexander H. Stephens, vice- 
president of the confederacy, R. M. T. Hunter, and John A. 
Campbell, proceeded to Hampton Roads, for a conference 
with the Government authorities. They were particularly 
anxious to meet the President in person, and Grant* tele- 
graphed Stanton : — 

" I will state confidentially — but not officially, to become a matter of 
record — that I am convinced by conversing with Messrs. Stephens and Hunter 
that their intentions are good, and their desires sincere to restore peace to 
the Union. I have not felt myself at liberty, to express views of my own, 
or even to account for my reticence. This has placed me in an awkward 

# * February first. 



1865.] Confer with Lincoln and Seward. 447 

position. *****i am sorrJ ^ r Lincoln can not have an inter- 
view with the two named in this dispatch, if not all three, within our lines." 

Thereupon the President— first instructing Grant not to 
delay or interrupt hostilities for a moment— joined the Secre- 
tary of State, whom he had already sent forward, and on 
the third of February conversed for four hours with the rebel 
commissioners. 

It proved fruitless. Neither side abated a jot of its 
original demand, the one insisting upon absolute indepen- 
dence, and the other upon absolute submission. Lincoln 
declared indispensable : (1.) The restoration of the national 
authority through all the States ; (2.) JS T o receding from the 
Government's position on slavery ; (3.) No cessation of hos- 
tilities until the enemy should abandon the war. 

To his statement that no conditions could be granted to 
armed rebels, one of the Southerners reminded him that 
Charles the First once treated with Irish insurgents while 
they were yet fighting. 

"I don' t remember that," replied the President, with one 
of his happiest repartees, "but I do remember that Charles 
the First lost his head !" 

Lincoln and Seward returned to Washington. The lat- 
ter wrote an account of the interview to the American 
minister at London : — 

" The conversation, although earnest and full, was calm and courteous, 
and kind on both sides. * * * * The several points at issue between the 
■ Government and the insurgents were distinctly raised, and discussed fully 
and intelligently and in an amicable spirit. What the insurgent party seemed 
chiefly to favor was a postponement of the question of separation, upon which 
the war is waged, and a mutual direction of the efforts of the Government as 
well as those of the insurgents, to some extrinsic policy or scheme for a season, 
during which passions might be expected to subside and all the armies be 
reduced, and trade and intercourse between the people of both sections be 
resumed. It was suggested by them, that through such postponement we 
might now have made peace with some not very certain prospect of an ulti- 
mate satisfactory adjustment of the political relations between the Govern- 
ment and the States, section, or people now engaged in conflict with it." 

The Southern commissioners represented to their au- 
thorities that the President would make no substantial 
concessions, and Jefferson Davis forwarded their report to 



448 Lee Proposes a Peace Conference. f 18C5 - 

tlie confederate congress as evidence that no course remained 
"but to fight to the "bitter end. 

But the cause of the rebels was dying for want of men. 
East of the Mississippi, seventy-two thousand deserted from 
their armies between October, 1864, and February, 1865. 
There seemed no alternative but to resort to that element 
about which they had taken up arms, and which proved 
their fatal weakness. Benjamin, their secretary of war, had 
long favored arming and freeing all negroes who would fight 
in their ranks ; but the project was so revolutionary, so 
dangerous, and, above all, so fatal to the end for which 
they had inaugurated revolution, that the hostility to it was 
very strong. 

Lee was promoted* from the command of the Army of 
of Northern Virginia to that ' ' of all the military forces of 
the confederate States." One of his first acts was to issue 
an address to his troops, which closed : — 

"Let us, then, oppose constancy to adversity, fortitude to suffering, and 
courage to danger, with the firm assurance that He who gave freedom to our 
fathers will bless the efforts of their children to preserve it." 

He was an advocate of the use of negro soldiers, and at 
last the confederate congress — urged to it by the Virginia 
legislature — authorized him to employ them. But the reso- 
lution came too late. Had it been taken a year earlier it 
is impossible to tell what the result might have been. It 
was a problem so complicated that mere theorizing could 
throw little light upon it. 

Ord met Longstreet to adjust perplexing questions about 
the exchange of prisoners. During the interview, Long- 
street suggested that a conference between the two oppos- 
ing commanders might prevent further effusion of blood. 
Ord acquiesced, whereupon f Lee addressed a letter to his 
antagonist: — 

"General: — Lieutenant-General Longstreet has informed me that in a 
recent conversation between himself and Major-General Ord, as to the pos- 
sibility of arriving at a satisfactory adjustment of the present unhappy diffi- 
culties, by means of military convention, General Ord stated that if I 

* February ninth. f March second. 



1865 -] Grant asks Instructions. 449 

desired to have an interview with you on the subject, you would not de- 
cline, provided I had authority to act. Sincerely desiring to leave nothing 
untried which may put an end to the calamities of war, I propose to meet 
you at such convenient time and place as you may designate, with the hope 
that, upon an interchange of views, it may be found practicable to submit 
the subjects of controversy between the belligerents to a convention of the 
kind mentioned. 

"In such event, I am authorized to do whatever the result of the proposed 
interview may render necessary or advisable. 

" Should you accede to this proposition, I would suggest that, if agree- 
able to you, we meet at the place selected by Generals Ord and Longstreet 
for their interview, at eleven a. m. on Monday next." 

Grant, with, characteristic subordination, forwarded this 
to Stanton, * with the following explanation : — 

" General Ord met General Longstreet a few days since, at the request 
of the latter, to arrange for the exchange of citizen prisoners and prisoners 
of war improperly captured. He had my authority to do so, and to arrange 
it definitely for such as were confined in his department. Arrangements 
for all others to be submitted for approval. A general conversation ensued 
on the subject of the war, and has induced the above letter. I have not 
returned any reply, but promised to do so at twelve m., to-morrow. / 
respectfully request instructions.'''' 

He had not taken a single step to call out Lee's commu- 
nication, nor had he made a single suggestion to the Gov- 
ernment concerning its subject-matter. But Stanton, with 
his usual brusqueness, sent a reply, f which could only be 
considered a rebuke : — 

" The President directs me to say to you that he wishes you to have no 
conference with General Lee, unless it be for the capitulation of Lee's army. 
or on solely minor and purely military matters. 

" He instructs me to say that you are not to decide, discuss, or confer 
upon any political question. Such questions the President holds in his own 
hands, and will submit them to no military conferences or convention. 
Meantime, you are to press to the utmost your military advantages." 

Grant, hurt by the reprimand and the imputation upon 
his discretion, responded to Stanton the same evening :— 

u I can assure you that no act of the enemy will prevent me from pressing 
all advantages gained to the utmost of my ability; neither will I, under any 

* March third. f March fourth. 

EE 



450 Stanton's Ungenerous Connuct. t 18 ^ 5 - 

circumstances, exceed my authority, or in any way embarrass the Govern- 
ment. 

" It was because I had no right to meet General Lee on the subject pro- 
posed by him that I referred the matter for instructions. 

" I have written a letter to General Lee, a copy of which will be sent 
to you by to-morrow's mail. 1 ' 

The following is his letter to Lee, also dated March 
fourth : — 

" In regard to meeting you on the sixth inst., I would state that I have no 
authority to accede to your proposition for a conference on the subject pro- 
posed. Such authority is vested in the President of the United States alone. 
General Ord could only have meant that I would nut refuse an interview 
on any subject on which I have a right to act, which, of course, would be 
such as are purely of a military character, and on the subject of exchanges 
which has been intrusted to me. 1 ' 

A few weeks later, Stanton, angry at Sherman's pro- 
posed terms to Johnston's army, ungenerously gave pub- 
licity to his own dispatch, without explaining the cir- 
cumstances which called it out. But Grant, ever ready 
to pardon seventy times seven injuries from any "body who 
seemed honestly trying to serve the country, showed no 
resentment. 

During the month the Richmond congress "fired the 
Southern heart" for the last time, vehemently urging the 
people that yielding now would make them slaves to 
their Northern enemies, and cause the distribution of their 
property among their late bondmen. The address con- 
cluded : — 

" Success gives us a country and a proud position among the nations of the 
the earth ; failure makes us the vassals of an arrogant people, secretly if not 
openly hated by the most enlightened and elevated portion of mankind. Suc- 
cess records us forever in letters of light upon one of the most glorious pages 
of history ; failure will compel us to drink the cup of humiliation, even to the 
hitter dregs of having the history of our struggle written by Neio England 
historians. Success is within our reach." 

But the Lieutenant- General regarded the conference at 
Hampton Roads, and especially Lee's undisguised anxiety 
for peace, as extremely significant. They were the begin- 
ning of the end. 



18G5 -3 Sherman in the Carolinas. 451 



CHAPTER XXXVII. 

ATTENTION MARCH ! 

Sherman's splendid army, turning north from Savan- 
nah, and meeting with little resistance, captured Columbia, 
the capital of South Carolina, and compelled the evacuation 
of Charleston.* The North was thrilled with delight when 
the city where the rebellion began was subdued by the 
strong arm. 

Sherman, still in the heart of the enemy's country, 
reached North Carolina, and for several days nothing was 
heard from him. One morning, Senator Stewart of Nevada, 
found the Lieutenant- General at head-quarters absorbed in 
serious thought. After a few minutes of silence he rose to 
leave. 

Grant. — " Don't go." 

Stewart.— " You seem to be busy ; I won't disturb 
you." 

Grant. — "I am only thinking. I am troubled about 
Sherman." 

Stewart. — " You don't suppose he is whipped?" 

Grant. — " Oh no ; they can't possibly whip Mm. They 
can't bring force enough to whip Sherman ; but [in a voice 
of great anxiety] I fear that he is out of supplies, and that 
the boys are suffering." 

The " frisky colt," however, after kicking up his 
heels to his heart's content, reached Fayetteville, on 
the Cape Fear River, on the twelfth of March. He 
opened communication with Schofield, who, in co-opera- 
tion with Admiral Porter, had alreadyf captured Wil- 
mington. Driving his old enemy, Johnston, before 
him, on the twenty- second of March Sherman reached 

* February seventeenth. \ February twenty-second. 



452 Sheridan Finishes up Early. t 1865 - 

Goldsboro, where he was within convenient distance of 
Giant. 

The General's first desire for the spring campaign was 
to cut all Lee's communications. By his orders, Thomas 
sent Wilson on a cavalry raid through Georgia and Ala- 
bama, capturing towns, troops, and stores; and Ston.-inan on 
another through East Tennessee and Western North Caro- 
lina. Grant also- directed Sheridan to move with his cav- 
alry from the Shenandoah to Lynchburg, and "destroy the 
railroad and canal in every direction, so as to be of do Far- 
ther use to the rebellion." Then, if circumstances justified 
it, he was to "strike south" and join Sherman. The dis- 
patch asserted that this raid, with the others just starting 
East and West, "and Sherman, with a large army, eating 
out the vitals of South Carolina, is all that will be wanted 
to leave nothing for the rebellion to stand upon." Five 
days later, Grant added : — 

"If you reach Lynchburg, you will have to be guided in your after 
movements by the information you obtain." 

Sheridan, with ten thousand cavalry and this roving 
commission, drove the rebel pickets up the valley, crossed 
a bridge over the Shenandoah before they could destroy it, 
and, without even stopping to reconnoiter, carried by storm f 
their intrenched camp at Waynesboro, and sent back to 
Winchester sixteen hundred prisoners, eleven pieces of 
artillery, and seventeen battle-flags. Early himself nar- 
rowly escaped capture, and ' ' this was his last appearance 
on any stage during the war." 

On went the irrepressible cavalry leader, destroying 
railways, and the Kanawha and James River Canal, a work 
which originated with Washington, but was now used to 
supply the army of Lee. The rebels burned bridges on his 
front, and the James River was so swollen that his pon- 
toons would not span it. He improved his enforced leisure 
by tearing up more railways, and completing the utter 
demolition of the canal. He would not turn back to Win- 
chester ; he could not push on to Sherman. Completely 

* February twentieth. \ March second. 



1865.] Abraham Lincoln at City Point. 453 

bewildering the enemy about his designs, he crossed the 
North and South Anna, destroying more railways and 
bridges, and at last — fortunately for the country, for Grant, 
and for himself — brought up safely at White House.* " By 
choosing this course, he voluntarily forsook his large de- 
partment, and put himself in the field at the head of two 
cavalry divisions, head-quarters in the saddle, and, apply- 
ing for a new situation, made no stipulations for himself, and 
no objection to going into the country." f 

Leaving his tired men to rest, he visited the Lieutenant- 
General, to say with Hotspur: — " Fy upon this quiet life, 
I want work." At head-quarters he found the President, 
who had received a dispatch % from Grant : — 

" Can you not visit City Point for a day or two? I would like very 
much to see you, and I think the rest will do you good." 

Lincoln replied the same evening : — 

u Your kind invitation received. Had already thought of going imme- 
diately, after the next train. Will go sooner if any reason for it. Mrs. 
Lincoln and a few others will probably accompany me. Will notify you 
when we fix a time, once it shall be fixed upon." 

The next day he reached the front. He was greatly worn 
by his load of care, and his tender eyes were sadder than ever. 
He delighted in strolling alone among camps, hospitals, 
and fatigue parties. One day, coming upon a squad cutting 
timber for a cabin, he picked up an ax and chopped off a 
large log, the men crowding around, and cheering heartily 
when he completed the feat. 

Everywhere from the Atlantic to Texas, the Union col- 
umns were ready to strike again. Grant had one hundred 
thousand men present for duty. Lee's muster-rolls showed 
even a larger number, but according to Southern writers, 
heavy desertions and other causes had so reduced it that 



* March nineteenth. 

f Colonel Newhall's " With Sheridan during the Last Six Weeks of his Cam- 
paign," — one of the most spirited and admirable books called out by the war. 
J March twentieth. 



4.~4 Grant's Orders for the Pinal Campaign. l ! 

lie had only fifty thousand effectives, an- 1 Johnston, who 
confronted Sherman, about half as many. 

On the twenty-fourth, Sheridan moved from White Eonse 
to join the Army of the Potomac and Grant issued minute 
instructions to him, to Meade, and to Ord for a general start 
on the twenty-ninth. Our lines still faced westward, toward 
Richmond and Petersburg. Sheridan was to Lead the grand 
movement on our left to seize the Long-coveted Southside 
and Danville railways. Parke would command the por- 
tion of the Army of the Potomac remaining in front of Peters- 
burg, and Weitzel that portion of the Army of the James 
left before Richmond. On the march Meade was to hold 
our right, with the Army of the Potomac, Ord our Left, 
with the Army of the James, and Sheridan the advance 
with the cavaliy. The letter closed : — 

"By these instructions a large part of the armies operating against 
Richmond is left behind. The enemy, knowing this, may. ;t < an only chance, 
strip their lines to the merest skeleton, in the hope of advantage n"t being 
taken of it, whilst they hurl every thing against the moving column, and 
return. It can not be impressed too strongly apon commanders of troops 
left in the trenches not to allow this to occur without taking advantagi 
it. The very fact of the enemy coming out to attack, if he does 80, might 
be regarded as almost conclusive evidence of such a weakening of his lines. 
I would have it particularly enjoined upon corps commanders that, in case of 
an attach from the enemy, those not attacked arc not to icait for orders from 
the commanding officer of the army to which they belong, but that they trill 
move promptly, and notify the commander of their action. I would also 
enjoin the same action on the part of division commanders, when other partt 
of their corps are engaged. In like manner, I would urge the importance 
of following up a repulse of the enemy." 

The quick- sighted Lee strove to avert the gathering 
storm. On the very morning after these orders were issued, 
as if to show his pitiless adversary that he, too, could 
"hammer" still, he made a violent assault on Fort Stead- 
man, near Petersburg. His plan was bold. If it succeeded 
he could cut our army in two, and destroy its supplies at 
City Point. Even failing in this, he might so cripple it that 
he could withdraw and join Johnston. 

Fort Steadman was a strong redoubt, containing nine 



1805] Lee's Repulse at Fort Steadman. 455 

guns and covering about an acre. The rebels, starting from 
their lines live hundred feet away, made a spirited dash, 
seizing the guns and turning them upon the adjoining bat- 
teries. Their success was but short-lived. Our soldiers, get- 
ting on their flank, captured nineteen hundred prisoners, 
retook and turned the cannons on their assailants, and sent 
them flying back into their intrenchments. At the same 
time, taking advantage of their weakness, Meade assaulted 
vigorously, carrying and holding another part of their line, 
and compelling them to ask an armistice to bury their dead. 
The President, who saw the battle from a ridge in the 
rear, pronounced it a good deal more satisfactory than a 
mere review, which had been promised him. But he had 
the review also, for several divisions, on their way to the 
field,. passing the height where he and the ladies of his party 
stood, paused to salute the chief of the nation. 

It was a splendid beginning for Grant. It cost the 
enemy five thousand soldiers, and gave Grant twenty-eight 
hundred prisoners. It was the old story reversed— our 
troops fighting within strong fortifications against a foe 
assailing from without. The General said : — 

" Lee had not the men to spare. His losses will tell in 
the next battle. Our new recruits fought like veterans." 

It did not change or delay a moment his campaign. 
On the evening of the twenty-seventh, Sherman arrived 
at City Point. His great march— the latest sensation- 
had made him the most popular leader of the hour. 
By Porter's orders, naval flags and naval salutes gave 
him welcome. Several general officers met him at the 
wharf and escorted him to head- quarters, where many more 
awaited him. 

Sherman. — " How are you, Grant?" 

Grant. — "How are you, Sherman?" 

Sherman (to the rest).—" I didn't expect to find all you 
fellows here. You don't travel as fast as we do." 

No time was spent in compliments. Sherman sat down in 
the cabin with the General and staff, and asked for a map. 
He was given to poring over maps — unlike the chief, whose 
assistants aver that they never saw him studying one, but 



456 



Sherman arrives for Conference. 



[1865. 



that lie seems by a mere glance to take in and remember 
towns, roads, streams, and forests. 

A large, minute map being brought, Sherman began 
eagerly to point out what he proposed to do. His plan — 
already mentioned in correspondence with the Lieutenant- 



£ {^APPOMATTOX C.H 

■nij, 




J%URKES STA 

^NOTAWAY.Clii^ 



k$ ' 



^■■■Mm FORKS I* 

Id 

DINWIDDIES.H. U 



THE FINAL CAMPAIGN AGAINST LEE. 



General — was to bring his army up to Weldon, where it 
would be within supporting distance, and could either join 
Grant, or go west to Burke's Station to intercept Lee. The 
chief feared to have him come so near, lest it should alarm 
Lee in time for him to escape. When his lieutenant was 
through, he quietly said : — 

" Well, Sherman, I am going to move up to Dinwiddie 
on the twenty- ninth, and think that will force Lee out of his 
lines to give me battle there [pointing to a spot on the map], 
which will be all I want ; or weaken his lines so that I can 
attack him." 

Sherman. — " A big banter ! a big banter ! But, Grant, 
we can make things perfectly sure." 

Grant.—" Well, if we don't succeed here, probably I 
can keep him from drawing back until you come up." 

Sherman remained two days. There was no formal 
conference, though Ord and Meade were summoned to 
head-quarters to meet him ; but all the generals talked 
freely with each other, and with the Chief Magistrate. A 



1865 1 Geakt's Hopes and FeapwS. 457 

journalist pictures several historic men as lie saw them 
walking together on the twenty-eighth : — 

'• Lincoln, tall, round-shouldered, loose-jointed, large-featured, deep- 
eyed, with a smile upon his face, is dressed in black, and wears a fashionable 
silk hat. Grant is at Lincoln's right, shorter, stouter, more compact; wears 
a military hat with a stiff, broad brim, has his hands in his pantaloons' pock- 
ets, and is puffing away at a cigar while listening to Sherman. Sherman 
tall, with high, commanding forehead, is almost as loosely built as Lincoln ; 
has sandy whiskers, closely cropped, and sharp, twinkling eyes, long arms 
and legs, shabby coat, slouched hat, his pantaloons tucked into his boots. 
He is talking hurriedly, gesticulating now to Lincoln, now to Grant, his eyes 
wandering everywhere. Meade, also tall, with thin, sharp features, a gray 
beard, and spectacles, is a little stooping in his gait. Sheridan, the shortest 
of all, quick and energetic in all his movements, with a face bronzed by sun 
and wind, is courteous, affable, and a thorough soldier. " 

Grant's great fear was that Lee might escape and join 
Johnston. But he was also anxious that the Army of the 
Potomac, which had suffered so many defeats, should win 
the final triumph. To every suggestion that he bring troops 
directly from the West or from Sherman's army, he had 
replied : — 

"No. Some Western men would then taunt these sol- 
diers: — 'We had to come and help you before you could 
end the war!' It is better for all that the Army of the 
Potomac should finish up the job." 

Lincoln, who at first favored the idea of bringing Sher- 
man' s army to City Point, said that he had not thought of 
this view, but was struck with its force, and heartily 
acquiesced in it. 

It was finally determined that Sherman should come to 
the Roanoke " at Gaston, or thereabouts," whence he could 
march to the vicinity of Burke' s . Station and get in Lee' a 
rear, or join Grant, as might be deemed best. If not needed, 
he was to make Johnston's army his objective point, as Grant 
made Lee's his, and both were to follow wherever their ad- 
versaries might go, and, above all things, to prevent a junc- 
tion between them. The Lieutenant- General's report says : 

" I explained to him the movement I had ordered to commence on the 
twenty-ninth of March, that if it should not prove as entirely successful as I 



458 His Final Orders for the March. L 1865 - 

lioped, I would cut the cavalry loose to destroy the Danville and Southside 
railroads, and thus deprive the enemy of further supplies, and also prevent 
the rapid concentration of Lee's and Johnston's armies. 

" / had spent days of anxiety lest each moment should bring the report 
that the enemy had retreated the night before. I id as firmly convinced that 
Sherman's crossing the Roanoke would be the signal for Lee to move. With 
Johnston and Lee combined, a long, tedious, and expensive campaign, con- 
suming most of the summer, might become necessary." 

On the twenty-eighth, Grant gave Meade, Ord, and Sheri- 
dan instructions for the next day. To the latter he wrote : — 

"Move your cavalry at an early hour as you can, and without being con- 
fined to any particular road or roads. You may go out by the nearest 
roads in the rear of the Fifth Corps, pass by its left and, passing near to or 
through Dinwiddle, reach the right and rear of the enemy as soon as you can. 
It is not the intention to attach the enemy in his intrenched position, but to 
force him out if possible. Should he come out and attack us, or get him- 
self where he can be attacked, move in with your entire force, in your own 
way, and with the full reliance that the army will engage or follow, as cir- 
cumstances will dictate. * * * After having accomplished the destruc- 
tion of the two railroads, which are now the only avenues of supply to Lee's 
army, you may return to this army, selecting your road farther south, or 
you may go on into North Carolina and join General Sherman." 

The sick and sutlers were sent to the rear, and now, 
positively for the last time, without any postponement on 
account of the weather, it was to be onward to Richmond. 



1865 -] Lincoln's Faiiewell Words. 459 



CHAPTER XXXVIII. 



RICHMOND FALLS. 



Before dawn on the twenty-ninth of March, Meade, Ord, 
and Sheridan had all broken camp, and were pushing tor- 
ward. After breakfast, Grant and his staff left City Point 
for the front, eighteen miles distant. The President, anxious 
and careworn, accompanied them to the train, saying : — 

" I wish I could go with you." 

As they stepped on board he stood grasping the iron rod 
at the rear of the car, and shook heartily the hand of each 
successive officer, with a cheerful adieu. To his eldest 
son — who had recently graduated at Yale, and was now 
serving modestly and efficiently on Grant's staff — he said : — 

"Robert, good bye. God bless you ! Eemember to do 
your duty always." 

Rawlins (who came last). — " I hope we shall have better 
luck now than we have had." 

Lincoln. — " Well, your luck is my luck, and the coun- 
try's — the luck of all of us — (reflectively), except the poor 
fellows who are killed. Success won't do them any good. 
They are the only ones not to be benefited by it." 

Sheridan's cavalry, nine thousand strong, was equal to 
any emergency, and full of faith in itself and its leader. 
Its scouts, under Major Young, of Rhode Island, wore con- 
federate gray, mingled freely with rebel troops and people, 
and when the general was on the march dropped in upon 
him at the cross-roads, bringing minute, trustworthy in for- 
mation. This was one secret of Sheridan's invariable 
success. 

At five p. St., he reached Dinwiddie Court-House. 
County towns in the South are "court-houses," whether 
they contain many or few dwellings. Dinwiddie boasted 
one hotel and two or three residences. As abounding mud 



460 "I now Feel like Ending the Matter." f 1865 - 

had kept the train from coming up, the soldiers went sup- 
perless to bed on the damp ground, and the general upon 
the tavern floor. After dark came a note from Grant:— 

" Our line is now unbroken from the Appomattox to Dinwiddie. * * * / 
now feel like ending the matter, if it is possible to do so, before going bach 
I do not want you, therefore, to cut loose and go after the enemy's roads 
at present. In the morning push around the enemy, if you can, and get 
on to his right rear." 

The day of raids was about oyer, and the day of bag- 
ging — a game which everybody had threatened, but nobody 
had played successfully, except the Lieutenant-General — 
was at hand. But four years of countless mud-marches 
had made the troops incredulous, and they would have 
hooted anybody out of camp, who predicted the capture of 
Lee' s army within ten days. 

Perseverance was near its reward. At last Grant had 
found the weak place in the armor of his adversary. Lee, 
usually so prudent, was to be ruined through much daring 
— through neglecting to withdraw while he could. 

The thirtieth of March opened during torrents of rain, 
which began the night before and continued for thirty-six 
hours. It held Meade' s and Ord' s infantry fast in the mud ; 
but Sheridan advanced his lines toward Five Forks. 

Sympathizing heartily in the chiefs desire to " end the 
matter," he rode back to head-quarters, and entered Grant's 
tent dripping from head to foot. The two had a long con- 
ference, the Lieutenant-General explaining his aims with mi- 
nuteness. Then Sheridan galloped through the mire again 
to Dinwiddie, and spent the evening at his own quarters, 
listening to a piano, and to the pleadings of several Rich- 
mond ladies, who had sought safe shelter in the village, that 
he would have no battle in that vicinity. It was a droll 
request to prefer to Mm. 

On the morning of the thirty-first he held Five Forks. 
But Warren moving forward to co-operate with him was 
driven back by a heavy infantry force, which then uniting 
with the cavalry on Sheridan's front, assailed him vigorous- 
ly. Greatly out-numbered, he fell back slowly for several 



18G5.] Sheridan Driven Back to Binwiddie. 461 

miles, and then had a very sharp fight for the Court-House. 
Hat in hand he galloped along his lines, accompanied by 
several officers, and an unfortunate correspondent who got 
a bullet in the shoulder. Once his troops wavered, and dis- 
aster seemed imminent, but he rallied them and held his 
own till dark. The hammering was going on again ! 

From the house of a poor woman with many children- 
no w tilled w r ith wounded — Sheridan dispatched :— 

u * * * Xhe men behaved splendidly. This force is too strong for us. I 
will hold out at Dinwiddie Court-House until I am compelled to leave." 

The Lieutenant-General replied, at ten p. m. :— 

" You will assume command of the whole force sent to operate with you, 
and use it to the best of your ability to destroy the force which your com- 
mand has fought so gallantly to-day." 

Grant says, in his final report : — 

" Sheridan displayed great generalship. Instead of retreating with his 
whole command on the main army, to tell the story of superior forces en- 
countered, he deployed his cavalry on foot, leaving only mounted men enough 
to take charge of the horses. This compelled the enemy to deploy over a 
vast extent of woods and broken country, and made his progress slow." 

Sheridan's command was now increased by Warren's 
corps to twenty-three thousand men. Before moving, 
on the first of April, he dispatched to Warren, whom he 
supposed to be in the enemy's rear : — 

" Possibly they may attack here at daylight. If so, attack instantly, and 
in full force. Attack at daylight anyhow. I will make an effort to get the 
road this side ; and if I do, you can capture the whole of them." 

But Warren, with natural— perhaps excessive— pru dence, 
had not moved in the darkness through that unknown 
country, and among unknown enemies. 

At earliest dawn Sheridan and staff galloped forward 
from Dinwiddie. In front of their pickets, through the 
lifting fog, they could just detect a long line of infantry. 
Were they rebels, or Warren's men? An aide, insisting 
that they wore blue, galloped toward an officer who was 
prancing his horse in front of them. As he approached, a 



462 Fights the Battle of Five Forks. P 865 - 

few words were exchanged ; there was a pistoi-shot from 
the unknown, and the reconnoiterer dashed back without 
the least lingering doubt. Sheridan' s plan for the approach- 
ing battle is given with great clearness in his official report :- 

"I determined that I would drive the enemy with cavalry to Five Forks, 
press them inside their works, and make a feint to turn their right flank, and 
meanwhile quietly move up the Fifth (Warren's) Corps, with a view to 
attacking their left flank, crush the whole force, if possible, and drive west- 
ward those who might escape, and thus isolate them from their army at 
Petersburg.' 

After waiting until late in the afternoon for Warren to 
get in position, he left Merritt in command of the cavalry, 
and rode until he found Warren sitting upon a log, issuing 
orders preparatory to battle. Sheridan grew impatient, and 
fancied that the corps commander threw cold water on the 
movement. But Warren, if he did lack the fiery impetu- 
osity of the cavalry leader, had often proved himself a 
good soldier. 

At four p. M. his corps advanced, with Sheridan— staff, 
body-guard, battle-nag, and all— in front of its line of battle. 
It struck the rebels in a dark wood. Musketry soon grew 
so hot that the Union line wavered, and two regiments broke 
and ran. Sheridan dashed in among the faltering men, took 
the colors in his own hand, and, his famous black steed 
' ' Rienzi ' ' pawing and dancing, led them forward again. One 
bullet pierced the flag ; another killed the sergeant who had 
just surrendered it to the general, and others yet disabled 
several officers near by. But the confederates were sur- 
rounded. The cavalry, under Merritt, held their front and 
right in a firm grip, and now the infantry was sweeping 
upon their left and rear. They made a gallant fight, facing 
both ways, but were driven slowly back until our infantry, 
"demoralized" by this Indian fighting in the forest against 
obstinate resistance, hesitated, and finally stopped. Then 
Warren himself galloped to the front, and bade his men 
not lead, but follow. Inspired by his example, they went 
right into the enemy's works. Warren's horse was shot 
under him, and a devoted Wisconsin officer, springing for- 
ward to shield him, was dangerously wounded. 



1866.] Evening Scenes in his Camp. 463 

Simultaneously with this success in the rebels' rear, 
came Merritt's cavalry charge on their front — a charge so 
sudden and vigorous that Pickett, standing in a battery and 
overlooking his division, received his first intimation of it 
from a mule, bounding over the parapet and bearing a Union 
cavalryman, who yelled in his ears: — "Surrender and be 
d d to you !" 

The rebels were routed. More than five thousand (one 
fourth of the whole) threw down their arms. The rest, 
cut off from Lee's main army, fled westward, abandoning 
guns, caissons, ambulances, and wagons. Sheridan pur- 
sued for six miles, until darkness stopped him.* 

The Union forces had lost less than a thousand men 
all told ; the confederates six thousand. Their slender 
army, already sadly weakened at Fort Steadman, was shed- 
ding its life blood, and shedding it in vain. It had fought 
for Five Forks — not a town, but the intersection of five 
wagon roads, four miles in the rear of Lee's extreme right. 
The position was very important, commanding the ap- 
proaches to the Southside Railway, six miles north of it. 
The battle won us that railway which — since June, 1804— 
we had expended so many lives to gain. It secured to 
Grant the last of Lee's communications, except the Rich- 
mond and Danville road, and the rebel chief could not hope 
to hold that many days longer. Inch by inch, the relent- 
less Union General had almost completed the circle around 
his foe. Inch by inch the brooding Fate — never resting, 
always advancing — encroached upon the little clear sky 
still left in the confederate heavens. 

After dark, Sheridan's camp was a scene for a painter. 
Blazing fires showed the wounded of both armies being 
borne to the hospitals ; huge piles of captured small -a mis, 
cannons, caissons, and wagons; thousands of sad prisoners 
huddled together, and our own men cooking their suppers, 
while the air rang with their jubilant shouts. Before one 
fire the cavalry general lay stretched upon a blanket, with 

* Near the close of this battle Warren was relieved, and Griffin placed in charge 
of his corps. 



464 Grant breaks the Petersburg Lines. D 86 5. 

his head upon his saddle, giving orders, hearing reports, 
and answering the questions of a World correspondent, 
who, with a cracker-box for a seat and a board for a desk, 
was recording the history which that day had made. 

Grant — back with Meade — was waiting the issue with 
deep anxiety. Soon the good news reached him, calling out 
hearty cheers for miles along his lines. He telegraphed 
it to the President, at City Point ; and Lincoln replied : — 

"Yours, showing Sheridan's success of to-day, is just received and highly 
appreciated. Having no great deal to do here, I am still sending the sub- 
stance of your dispatches to the Secretary of War." 

The imminent peril in Lee's rear might induce him to re- 
tire from his intrenchments, or detach force enough to over- 
whelm Sheridan ; so at ten p. m., by order of the Lieutenant- 
General, the batteries from all our investing lines opened in 
fierce bombardment — the preliminary of a grand assault. 

Toward midnight an aide, after floundering through the 
mud for miles, reached head-quarters, and delivered to 
Grant — whom he found in bed — a verbal message that 
Sheridan was ready to attack the enemy' s right flank early 
in the morning, if he desired it. 

The chief replied that he approved the plan, and would 
have suggested it himself had he not been sure that his 
trusted lieutenant would do whatever was for the best. He 
added, that he had already sent a division to re-enforce 
Sheridan, lest Lee should abandon his Petersburg intrench- 
ments during the night and attempt to cut his way west- 
ward. 

At four A. m., on Sunday, April second, Meade and Ord 
assaulted, breaking Lee's line south of Petersburg, capturing 
thousands of prisoners, and cutting off a part of the rebel 
force, which then retreated westward up the Appomattox. 
The wall was trembling and cracking ! Parke also pierced 
the main line in front of Petersburg, securing guns and 
prisoners, but the inner line stopped him. 

Grant more than fulfilled his prediction to Sherman that 
he would compel his adversary to weaken his line and 
afford opportunity for attack, or to come out and fight ; he 



1865.] A. P. Hill is Killed. 465 

did both. Lee was in his Petersburg head-quarters, when 
the warning cannonade came nearer and nearer. 

Lee (to A. P. Hill). — "How is this, general? Your 
men are giving way." 

Hill mounted, galloped toward the outer works, and 
saw the Union forces pouring in. While still, as he sup- 
posed, within his own lines, he was greeted :— 

"Halt!" 

Three Federal soldiers stepped from behind a tree with 
their pieces leveled. He shouted to them : — 

" Throw down your arms !" 

Surprised at his audacity, they hesitated a moment, then 
fired ; and one of the ablest of the enemy fell dead. 

The day's work cost the "Union army many lives; but 
completed the destruction of Lee's right, upon which it 
had "hammered" for ten months. Grant telegraphed to 
Bowers at City Point : — 

" The whole captures since the army started out gunning will not amount 
to less than twelve thousand men, and probably fifty pieces of artillery. 
* * * If the President will come out on the nine a. m. train to Patrick 
Station I will send a horse and an escort to meet him. It would afford me 
much pleasure to meet the President in person at the station, but I know he 
will excuse me for not doing so, when my services are so liable to be needed 
at any moment." 

Lincoln replied : — 

"Allow me to tender to you, and all with you, the nation's grateful 
thanks for this additional and magnificent success. At your kind sugges- 
tion, I think I will meet you to-morrow." 

The Sunday morning had dawned peacefully in the rebel 
capital. On Saturday evening, The Sentinel, said :— 

" We are very hopeful of the campaign which is opening, and trust that 
we are to reap a large advantage from the operations evidently near at 
hand. We have only to resolve that we never will surrender, and it will be 
impossible that we shall ever be taken." 

The very next day, at eleven a. m., the devout Jefferson 
Davis, worshiping at St. Paul's church, received a dispatch 
from Lee : — 

FF 



466 Jefferson Davis's Flight. [1865. 

" The enemy has broken my lines in three places. Richmond must be 
evacuated to-night." 

He withdrew from the congregation, walked to his house, 
and wrote orders for removing the coin from the banks to 
Danville, and sending away or burning all confederate ar- 
chives. Discreetly concluding that the Southside Eailway 
was no longer safe, at eight p. m. he rode to the Danville sta- 
tion, and took his horse and carriage on board the train for 
emergencies. His wife had already gone south, and his 
only companions were several fugacious doctors of divinity. 
Their occupation was gone. They had fallen upon evil 
times. No more were they to expound from the pulpit, in 
the name of the Christian religion, the duty of white men to 
drench a continent in fraternal blood, in defense of their 
inalienable right to hold black men in bondage ! 

A slave-dealer, surmising that his human property would 
be at a discount the next morning, was also at the station 
with fifty handcuffed negroes, begging that he might be 
allowed to accompany the confederacy on its southern 
meanderings. But, in gross disregard of the fitness of 
things, the bayonets of soldiers in gray prevented him from 
entering the train. 

Davis died game. Reaching Danville, he halted his 
government long enough to issue* his last proclamation : — 

" We have now entered upon a new phase of the struggle. Believed from 
the necessity of guarding particular points, our army will be free to move 
from point to point, to strike the enemy in detail far from his base. Let us 
but will it, and we are free. * * * Virginia, with the help of the people, 
and by the blessing of Providence, shall be held and defended, and no peace 
ever be made with the infamous invaders of her territory. * * * Let us, 
then, not despond, my countrymen, but, relying on God, meet the foe with 
fresh defiance, and with unconquered and unconquerable hearts." 

But this was three days after that Sunday, never to be 
forgotten in Richmond. The Virginia legislature embarked 
on a canal-boat for Lynchburg. Vehicles to take fugitives 
from the city commanded ten, fifteen, and finally a hundred 
dollars an hour in greenbacks or gold. Confederate prom- 
ises to pay, no longer even nominally valuable, obstructed 

* April fifth. 



1865.] "And Great was the Fall of It." 4G7 

the streets and were kindled into bonfires. Depositors were 
obtaining their specie from the banks ; directors hauling 
their bullion to the railway ; and carriages and wagons, 
and men and women, white and black, pouring westward. 

After dark, cords of public documents blazed in the 
streets, and hundreds of barrels of whisky, belonging to the 
confederate medical department, were emptied into tin* gut- 
ters. Soldiers, citizens, and even women, drank till they 
became an uncontrollable mob, pillaging stores, robbing 
dwellings, and staggering under loads of flour, bacon, and 
dry-goods, which they threw away whenever they found 
other articles more attractive. Wealthy citizens stealthily 
buried plate, money, and jewels in their yards and gardens. 

Ewell, commanding the city — which was still nominally 
under martial rule — ordered the warehouses, stored with 
confederate government tobacco, to be burned. The mayor, 
and Breckinridge, the "so-called" secretary of war, in vain 
protested. Ewell kindled a conflagration which destroyed 
a thousand houses, covering thirty squares, in the heart of 
the city. He fired all the shipping in the James River, 
except the flag-of- truce boat, and the rams were blown up 
with thundering reports. 

So fled Jefferson Davis, whom Richmond had delighted 
to honor. So ended, in ear-piercing explosions, wide-spread 
debauchery, and wholesale conflagration, the rule of the 
confederacy, inaugurated four years earlier with flying 
flags and pealing fire-bells. 

At dawn on Monday, over the roads leading southwest 
the rebel rear-guards marched away, burning the bri<! 
behind them. Women implored them to stay and fight for 
their homes, but the grim soldiers replied that fighting was 
"played out." Behind rode Ewell, upon an iron-gray 
horse, wearing a faded cloak and slouched hat; and Breck- 
inridge, who bade a long farewell to all his greatness. 

The explosions of iron-clads and fortifications had been 
heard in WeitzeFs camp, and at eight A. M. forty I nion 
troopers galloped unresisted into the city, which for four 
years had baffled and defied twenty millions of people. 
Negro infantry followed, singing jubilantly : — 



468 Lincoln's Reception in Richmond. L 1865 - 

" John Brown's body lies a moldermg in the grave, 
But his soul is marching on." 

They reached the State-house ; stacked their arms ; 
manned the tire-engines, and did their best to stem the con- 
flagration. Weitzel established his head-quarters in the late 
presidential mansion. 

Lincoln, coming forward from City Point, found Peters- 
burg evacuated. During the day he reached Richmond in 
a row-boat, accompanied by Farragut and Porter. His 
haggard face was lighted up with unwonted cheerfulness. 
Negroes thronged about him by thousands, many with 
streaming eyes, all with cheer after cheer for their savior 
and friend. The President removed his hat and bowed 
in silence — an unprecedented recognition of their race from 
the acknowledged head of the nation. 

He sat for a while in the reception-room, which only two 
days before had been crowded with visitors to the rebel 
president. He went through Libby Prison, and found it 
filled with Southerners. A Northern general writing orders 
at the desk of Jefferson Davis ; negro soldiers thronging the 
streets ; confederate, not Union captives looking out through 
the barred windows of Libby ! Well might the sad eyes 
grow joyful and the worn face relax into smiles. 

Before noon the telegraph had carried the news through 
the length and breadth of the North. It set the people mad 
with joy. Even the Gold Exchange of New York — hitherto 
unsuspected of sentiment or patriotism — suspended busi- 
ness, and the members, many of whom had applauded the 
execution of the Virginia martyr six years before, joined 
in singing "John Brown," "Old Hundred," and "The 
Star- Spangled Banner." There were impromptu meetings 
and processions, flags went up, church bells rang, strangers 
congratulated and even embraced each other in the streets. 



1365.] "Siftin Soup, Sah." 469 



CHAPTER XXXIX. 

THE HOT CHASE. 

At daylight,* Lee's reduced force was sixteen miles from 
Petersburg. Strange to tell, his spirits were unusually 
light. He hoped to join Johnston and continue the war. 

"I have got my army," he said, "safe out of its breast- 
works. In order to follow me the enemy must abandon his 
lines, and can not draw any further benefit from his rail- 
roads or the James River." 

The Lieutenant-General went into Petersburg with the 
troops ; took one stroll through the streets ; never waited to 
visit Richmond, but instantly started his army in pursuit. 

Lee had survived perils which seemed almost as great as 
this ; but they resembled it only in the seeming. Grant, 
hot on his track with Meade and Ord ; Sheridan, eager on 
his flank, with infantry and cavalry ! The Fate was closing 
its iron hand. 

Already the swords were being beaten into plowshares. 
One division passed a rich field, where the farmer was turn- 
ing up the soil, though his buildings and fences had been 
burned in previous campaigns. He said : — 

" As soon as I knew Richmond was evacuated I thought 
it safe to go to plowing." 

Sheridan— starting from Five Forks— asked a gray- 
headed negro, who was swinging his hat in joy : — 

" Where are the rebels, uncle ?" 

"Siftin' souf, sah; siftin' souf!" replied the patriarch. 

Lee was marching his troops westward in several <•<>] 
umns on both banks of the Appomattox. Meade and Ord, 
behind and south of him, were moving in the same direction 
Sheridan, still farther south, and almost neck-aiul-neck 

* Monday, April third. 



470 Sheridan ox Lee s Froxt. [ 1S0;i - 

with him, confident that he was aiming for Danville, North 
Carolina, turned his course northward, to head him off. 
The troopers soon had a severe encounter with several rebel 
detachments. At five p. m. on Tuesday, the fourth, the 
tired infantry corps reached Jetersville. There Sheridan 
heard that Lee was at Amelia Court-House, five miles north- 
east. He had intercepted the enemy ! 

The rebels were straggling. Young s scouts, in confede- 
rate uniform, riding along the road and assuming to be Lee's 
weary men were acting as decoys. They led the way into a 
thicket, where twenty Union soldiers, with cocked guns, 
received their prey, and compelled silence. Almost a regi- 
ment were thus conducted into the snare of the fowler. 

Now was Lee's last, golden opportunity. Only a single 
corps of infantry and one division of cavalry blocked his 
path. He could easily have cut his way through. Sheridan 
comprehending this, instantly began to intrench, and sent 
back an urgent request to Meade, sixteen miles in the rear. 
The messenger found him sick in bed, and his weary troops 
encamped for the night. 

Meade. — " Do I understand you that General Sheridan 
believes Lee's army will be destroyed or captured if my 
troops reach the Danville railroad to-morrow morning V' 

Aide. — " Yes, sir. 1 ' 

Meade' s men were hungrily waiting for their supplies to 
come up. But he issued an order, informing them of "the 
distinguished General Sheridan's" opinion, and instructing 
them to march at two a. m. They wished " the distinguished 
general" somewhere else, but prepared to obey cheerfully. 

The rest of his cavalry having come up, Sheridan found 
a little time to sleep before morning.* He momentarily ex- 
pected an attempt from Lee to cut his way through. "When 
dawn came without it, he grew suspicious that Lee might 
be trying to escape by passing north. He sent out a recon- 
noissance under Da vies, which falling upon a rebel train, 
destroyed a hundred and eighty wagons, capturing a thou- 
sand prisoners, several colors, and four pieces of artillery. 

* April fifth. 



1865.] "OUB ABMY IS RUINED, I FEAR." 471 

The enemy, unaccustomed to haying his trains disturbed, 
resisted Davies vigorously, and there was hot skirmishing. 

Another corps of the Army of the Potomac arrived, but 
Meade, still sick, was compelled to return to his bed, and 
leave the cavalry general in command. In the afternoon a 
negro brought Sheridan a note which a confederate officer 
at Amelia had written to his mother. It said :— 

11 Our army is ruined, I fear. We are all safe as yet. * * General 

Robert Lee is in the field near us. My trust is still in the justice of our 
cause." 

This so confirmed Sheridan s surmises of Lee's desperate 
condition, that he immediately forwarded it to Grant, with 
an account of his day's work, adding : — 

'• I wish you were here yourself. I feel confident of capturing the Army 
of Northern Virginia if we exert ourselves. I see no escape for General 
Lee." 

The Lieutenant-General thought so too. The day before 
he had telegraphed to Washington :— 

"The army is pushing forward in the hope of overtaking or dispersing the 

remainder of Lee's army. * * * Houses through the country are nearly all 
used as hospitals for wounded. In every direction I hear of rebel soldiers 
pushing for home, some in large, some in small squads, and generally with- 
out arms. The cavalry have pursued so closely that the enemy have been 
forced to destroy probably the greater part of their transportation, caissons, 
and munitions of war. The number of prisoners captured yesterday will 
exceed two thousand." 

Grant was with Ord, on our extreme left, moving along 
the Southside road, watching all the parts of his scattered 
command with unceasing vigilance, and minutely directing 
its movements, to make assurance doubly sure. Jus* 
Ord's tired troops halted for the night, he received Sher- 
idan's dispatch, stating that he was square on Lee's front, 
and had captured a train and many prisoners. It was sent 
out to the men, with an order to resume their march at once. 
They obeyed with roaring cheers, which passed like a swift 
wind from regiment to regiment. 

On the road, just at dusk, the General received a second 
dispatch from Sheridan, reiterating his desire for the presence 



472 Grant goes forward to Sheridan. [is66. 

of the chief, and his opinion that the time had come for com- 
pelling Lee to surrender. 

Grant (to his chief of staff). — "What do you think 
of it?" 

Rawlins. — "It looks well, but you know Sheridan is 
always a little sanguine." 

Grant. — " Well, let us go. Here, orderly, take my sad- 
dle off the Jeff Davis pony and put it on Cincinnatus."* 

Rawlins, worn out and in poor health, also changed his 
saddle, and the party, dinnerless and supperless, started 
across the country, accompanied only by a dozen order- 
lies. An hour before midnight they reached Sheridan's 
head-quarters, a little frame dwelling near Jetersville. 

Sheridan, who was up-stairs asleep, soon came down, 
rubbing his eyes and smiling. Ordering supper for his 
guests, he plunged into business. Scratching a rude dia- 
gram in pencil, on the back of a letter, he pointed out the 
whereabouts of Lee' s columns and his own troop 

"We will have them," he exclaimed, his eyes flash- 
ing with eagerness, "every man of them. That is, if you 
can only get Meade's army up. I want him to take this 
position, so I can swing around there. Then we'll have 
every mother's son of them !" 

Grant (after asking several questions). — "Lee is in a bad 
fix. It will be difficult for him to get away." 

Sheridan. — " D — n him, he can'' t get away. We'll have 
his whole army ; we'll have every of them! ' : 

Grant. — "That's a little too much to expect. I think 
if I were Lee I could escape at least with some of my men." 

The chief was as confident at heart as his lieutenant, but 
wished to avoid raising expectation too high 

Turn we to Lee. He reached Amelia Court-House on the 
morning of the fourth, expecting to meet supplies from Dan- 
ville for his almost famished men. The food had arrived on 
the second, but the officer in charge of the train received a 
telegraphic order to bring the cars to Richmond for helping 
to remove the property of the confederate government. He 

* A favorite horse, sent to the General from Cincinnati. 



1865.] Gallant Exploit of Head's Brigade. 473 

stupidly carried forward not only the train but its contents 
also. Lee, appalled to find no rations, had to wait almost 
two days, while his men foraged upon the country. If 
there was hope before, this sealed his doom. 

On the morning of the sixth, Meade and Sheridan, start- 
ing from Jetersville toward Amelia Court-House, to give 
Lee battle, found he was slipping past north of them. But 
Ord, who, through Grant's skillful dispositions, had reached 
Burke's Station at midnight, pushed toward Farmville to 
intercept him, sending in advance General Theodore Read, of 
Wisconsin, with two regiments of infantry and a squadron of 
cavalry to destroy the bridges. Read had just begun upon 
the Farmville bridge, when the head of Lee' s columns struck 
him in force. The ground, however, was extremely favor- 
able, and he spread his men in a long line well covered by 
the woods. This imposing display delayed the confederates ; 
but moving forward at last, they easily brushed away the 
little force, disabling or capturing every man. Read was 
mortally wounded, but his gallant stand held Lees advance 
until Ord got up, when the rebels halted and intrenched. 

While Read skirmished on their front, a part of Sheri- 
dan' s cavalry struck their flank, capturing four hundred 
wagons and sixteen field-pieces. Sheridan himself, a little 
in the rear with one brigade and a battery, waiting for the 
Sixth Corps to come up, employed his leisure by practicing 
on the enemy's wagons, with solid shot and shell, stamped- 
ing mules and terrifying the negro drivers. The smoke to 
the westward soon gave him some idea of what his troop- 
ers were about. He sat down upon a stump, and, on a leaf 
of his note-book, wrote a dispatch to Grant, and almost 
before the orderly bearing it was out of sight, a second, 
stating that the enemy's retreat was rapidly becoming a 
rout, and suggesting that every thing "be hurried forward 
with the utmost speed." 

Then, to avoid monotony, Sheridan charged with Ins 
little cavalry brigade. It left wounded men and many 
dead horses on the field, but it cut the rebel column near 
Sailor's Creek, a little stream entering the Appomattox from 
the south, a few miles above High Bridge. 



474 The Battle of Sailok's Creek. C 1865 - 

At that opportune moment the Sixth Corps came up. 
As Sheridan was leading it in, one of Custer' s troopers, who 
had dashed right through the enemy's line, arrived, and in- 
formed him that his cavalry divisions two miles ahead, after 
burning the train, had planted themselves square across the 
road. The rebels thus taken in front and rear, fought gal- 
lantly, but with infantry closing in upon one side and 
cavalry on the other, lighting was fruitless. They threw 
down their arms. The day's work had given us over seven 
thousand prisoners. One captured wagon bore the humor- 
ous inscription : — "We uns have found the last ditch." 

At night, before a roaring camp-fire, Sheridan wrote a 
third dispatch to Grant, concluding with the one thought 
that never left his mind : — 

"Up to the present time we have captured Generals Ewell, Kershaw, 
Barton, Corse, Defoe, and Custis Lee; several thousand prisoners, fourteen 
pieces of artillery and caissons, and a large number of wagons. If the thing 
is pressed, I think that Lee will surrender." 

Then he flung himself upon his back on the ground, with 
his feet to the lire, and was asleep in a moment. He and 
his staff had shared supper and blankets with the captured 
confederate generals, who now reclined about the fire, 
weary and sad. Ewell sat upon the ground, with his arms 
clasped around his knees and his face bowed down between 
them. He said little, beyond begging Sheridan to demand 
Lee' s surrender, as longer struggle was hopeless. 

Upon the bank of the Appomattox, that night, the lead- 
ing rebel generals met in council, Lee staying away, from 
motives of delicacy. The draft animals were dying for want 
of forage. The men had suffered terribly, some subsisting 
upon parched corn, and some upon bark and roots. They 
still fought obediently, and often gallantly, but without 
hope. The generals unanimously reported to Lee that, in 
their opinion, nothing remained except surrender ; but he 
insisted that there was yet some hope of escape. 

At the same time, Lincoln, anxious to neglect no possible 
means by which the downfall of the confederacy could be 
hastened, wrote a very important letter from City Point to 
the Lieutenant- General, at Burke' s Station : — 



1865.] Important Letter from Lincoln. 475 

" Secretary Seward was thrown from his carriage yesterday, and seriously 
injured. This, with other matters, will take me to Washington soon. I was 
at Richmond yesterday and the day before, when and where Judge Campbell 
(who was with Messrs. Hunter and Stephens in February) called on me, and 
made such representations as induced me to put in his hands an informal 
paper, repeating the propositions in my letter of instructions to Mr. Seward 
(which you remember), and adding that, if the w r ar be now further persisted 
in by the rebels, confiscated property shall, at the least, bear the additional 
cost; and that confiscations shall be remitted to the people of any State 
which will now promptly, and in good faith, withdraw its troops and other 
support from resistance to the Government. Judge Campbell thought it not 
impossible that the rebel legislature of Virginia would do the latter, if per- 
mitted ; and accordingly I addressed a private letter to General Weitzel (with 
permission for Judge Campbell to see it), telling him (General Weitzel) that 
if they attempted this, to permit and protect them, unless they attempt some- 
thing hostile to the United States ; in which case to give them notice and time 
to leave, and to arrest any remaining after such time. 

'.' I do not think it very probable that any thing will come of this ; but I 
have thought best to notify you, so that, if you should see signs, you may 
understand them. From your recent dispatches it seems that you are pretty 
effectually withdrawing the Virginia troops from opposition to the Govern- 
ment. Nothing I have done, or probably shall do, is to delay, hinder, or 
interfere with you in your work. 1 ' 

During the day Grant had dispatched to Sherman :— 

"We have Lee's army pressed hard, his men scattering and going to 
their homes by the thousands. He is endeavoring to reach Danville, where 
Davis and his cabinet have gone. / shall press the pursuit to the end. Push 
Johnston at the same time, and let us finish up this job all at once." 

At dawn, on the seventh, all the rebels were on the north 
side of the Appomattox. At High Bridge they fired both 
bridges, but our troops, close on their heels, saved the one 
on the wagon road, and nearly all the railway structure. 
In the pursuit Meade had some sharp skirmishing with the 
rebel rear. The enemy finally halted and intrenched, in a 
strong position five miles from Farmville. 

But Sheridan, ahead again, did not know this, and still 
continued to "press things." He galloped through the rain 
to Prince Edward's Court-House. Finding no enemy there, 
he pushed on toward Prospect Station.* 

Dismounting at a farm-house, he tied his horse, and 

* On the railway, eleven miles west of Farmville. 



476 Sheridan and the Old Virginian. [i 865 « 

strolled up the walk. Upon the piazza sat a middle-aged 
typical Southron— -with long, straight hair combed behind 
his ears and covering his neck— a swallow-tailed coat, buff 
waistcoat, nankeen pantaloons, and morocco slippers. A 
gorgeous shirt frill adorned his bosom, and from the embra- 
sure of his wall-like collar he shot defiant glances. He 
bowed stiffly to the general, who, nodding carelessly, sat 
down on a step, and pored over his maps. Soon he looked 

up. 

Sheridan. — " Have you seen any of Lee's troops about 

here to-day?" 

Planter. — " Sir, as I can truly say that none have been 
seen by me, I will say so ; but if I had seen any, I should 
feel it my duty to refuse to reply to your question. I can 
not give you any information which might work to the dis- 
advantage of General Lee." 

The general, with a little whistle of surprise, puffed 
away at his cigar, and continued to study his map. In a 
few minutes he looked up again. 

Sheridan. — " How far is it to Buffalo River?" 

Planter. — " Sir, I don't know." 

Sheridan. — "The devil you don't! How long have 
you lived here?" 

Planter. — "All my life." 

Sheridan. — "Very well, sir, it's time you did know! 
Captain ! put this gentleman in charge of a guard, and walk 
him down to Buffalo River to show it to him. 1 ' 

The Virginian of the Old School enjoyed the pleasure 
of tramping through five miles of mud, to look at a river 
with which he was perfectly familiar. * 

During the day (April seventh) Grant wrote the follow- 
ing letter from Farmville to Lee : — 

" General : — The result of the last week must convince you of the 
hopelessness of further resistance on the part of the army of Northern Vir- 
ginia in this struggle. I feel that it is so, and regard it as ray duty to shift 
from myself the responsibility of any further effusion of blood, by asking of 
you the surrender of that portion of the Confederate States army known as 
the Army of Northern Virginia." 

* Copied from " With Sheridan in Lee's Last Campaign." 



1865.] "A Friend of the Family." 477 

He sent it by General Setli Williams, of the staff of the 
Army of the Potomac, who had known Lee intimately be- 
fore the war. As Williams approached the enemy's picket 
line, a confederate, not observing his white flag, blazed 
away, but he fortunately escaped with a slight wound. 

Meanwhile, an aide of Sheridan's, cautiously approach- 
ing Farmville, was gratified to find it full of blue coats in- 
stead of gray. Among wagons, caissons, and ambulances, 
he wended his way to the hotel and informed the Lieutenant- 
General — smoking serenely upon the piazza — that Sheridan 
was striking for Prospect, fancying that Lee was now trying 
to reach Lynchburg. 

Grant.— "Tell General Sheridan that I think well of 
his movement in that direction. I will push on from here 
rapidly. I have written a note to General Lee, and think 
he will surrender soon." 

The chief slept at the tavern — occupied only by the land- 
lord and his family. The Union troops had gone forward ; 
a few stragglers alone remained in Farmville. Grant posted 
no guards, and strolled about the village taking no sort of 
precaution against a dash from the enemy. 

A few confederate wounded were lying in one house, 
and a rebel surgeon in charge of them, and wearing his uni- 
form, passed in and out the hotel until an aide demanded 
who he was. He hinted that that was none of the aide's 
business, but being told sharply that he was in Grant's 
head-quarters, explained that he was a friend of the family, 
and was endeavoring to soothe their natural anxiety. The 
staff officer ordered him to keep within his hospital. Late 
at night, seeing him stealthily enter the tavern again, and 
fearing some plot for abduction or assassination, the aides 
arrested him. Then he confessed that he was betrothed to 
the landlord's daughter. Mars was lenient to Yenus and 
the offender escaped punishment, but was kept under guard 
during the General' s stay. 

Several hours before daylight on the eighth, Williams 
returned with Lee's reply, written the day before:— 

" General :— I have received your note of this date. Though not enter- 
taining the opinion you express of the hopelessness of further resistance on 



478 CORRESPONDENCE BETWEEN GRANT AND LEE. [1865. 

the part of the Army of Northern Virginia, I reciprocate your desire to avoid 
useless effusion of blood, and, therefore, before considering your proposition, 
ask the terms you will offer on condition of its surrender." 

After breakfast, Grant sent Williams back with a letter, 
and a message that he might be found near Meade's head- 
quarters, should Lee wish to communicate further : — 

"General: — Your note of last evening, in reply to mine of same date, 
asking the conditions on which I will accept the surrender of the Army of 
Northern Virginia, is just received. In reply, I would say, that peace being 
my great desire, there is but one condition I would insist upon — namely, 
That the men and officers surrendered shall be disqualified for taking up 
arms again against the Government of the United States until properly ex- 
changed. I will meet you, or will designate officers to meet any officers you 
may name for the same purpose, at any point agreeable to you, for the pur- 
pose of arranging definitely the terms upon which the surrender of the Army 
of Northern Virginia will be received." 

The enemy was pushing toward Appomattox Station, 
Meade' s army pursuing closely and harassing its rear-guard, 
but unable to bring on a general engagement. 

Sheridan, leaving Prospect on the morning of the eighth, 
was delighted to learn from his scouts, that several trains 
of supplies were waiting Lee's arrival at Appomattox Sta- 
tion — twenty-five miles ahead, and four miles south of 
Appomattox Court-House. 

His tired troopers pushed zealously forward, for once out 
of the mud and in a region never plowed by the furrows of 
war, where woods, fences, and farm-houses stood undis- 
turbed. Before sunset, Custer, on the advance, came in 
sight of Appomattox Station, and in a twinkling threw his 
division forward, enveloping four trains of cars before the 
engineers had time to beat a retreat. As he did so, a tre- 
mendous banging began from the forest beyond. 

With great promptness he summoned engineers and 
brakesmen from his ranks. They leaped from their horses, 
and started the trains toward Farmville. Then Custer 
dashed into the woods, on the front of the rebel batteries, 
which were peppering him, just as another force sent by 
Sheridan took them in the rear. Twenty-five guns and a 
thousand prisoners were captured ; the rest of the rebels 
escaped toward Appomattox Court-House. 



1865.] Faosimile of Lee's fiest Eeply. 479 

pv€U £cvsvn^ df/trtA-- MrvOL 0M^7^ — tfisL— 




LW^ 









Grant thinks the "Job" Finished. E 1865 - 

After dark, Sheridan established head-quarters at a 
dwelling near the station, and stretching himself on a bench 
before a bright fire, dispatched to his chief, by no means 
omitting the opinion he was ready to die for : — 

" Custer is still pushing on. If General Gibbon and the Fifth Corps can 
get up to-night, we will, perhajis, finish the job in the morning, I do not 
think Lee means to surrender until compelled to do so." 

Grant — directing the whole as carefully as Sheridan 
watched the advance — was likewise so confident that the 
"job" was nearly finished, that he would fain have left 
the rear, where his eye was no longer needed, and gone 
forward. But, expecting a communication from Lee, he 
remained near Meade's head-quarters through the after- 
noon, and spent the night at the Clifton House, seven miles 
from Prospect Station, the aides rolling themselves in blan- 
kets on the floor— the General and Rawlins enjoying the 
unwonted luxury of a bed up stairs. 



1865.] LEE DETERMINES " TO BE FEAXK." 481 



CHAPTER XL. 



THE LAST DITCH. 



Before he was out of bed, on the memorable ninth of 
April, 1865, Grant received a letter, written on the eighth 
by Lee, whose anxiety 4 'to be frank" seemed to move him 
to a disingenuousness foreign to his nature : — 

"General:— I received, at a late Lour, your note of to-day. In mine of 
yesterday I did not intend to propose the surrender of the Army of Northern 
Virginia, but to ask the terms of your proposition. To be frank, I do not 
think the emergency has arisen to call for the surrender of this army ; but 
as the restoration of peace should be the sole object of all, I desired to know 
whether your proposals would lead to that end. I can not, therefore, meet 
you with a view to surrender the Army of Northern Virginia; but as far as 
your proposal may affect the Confederate States forces under my command, 
and tend to the restoration of peace, I should be pleased to meet you at ten 
a.m. to-morrow, on the old stage-road to Richmond, between the picket-lines 
of the two armies.' 

The Lieutenant-General's sympathies were excited for 
Lee, and his first impulse was to accede. But a little re- 
flection showed that it would place him in a false position, 
besides being of no use, as his treating power— confined to 
the army directly on his front— could not be stretched to 
cover "the restoration of peace." He replied :— 

" General :— Your note of yesterday is received. I have no author 
treat on the subject of peace ; the meeting proposed for ten a. m. to-day c 
lead to no good. I will state, however, General, that I am equally anxious 
for peace with yourself, and the whole North entertains the sain. 
The terms upon which peace can be had are well understood. T-. 
laying down their arras they will hasten that most desirable event, Bai 
sands of human lives, and hundreds of millions of property not yet destri i 
Seriously hoping that all our difficulties may be settled without the los: 
another life, I subscribe myself, etc." 

Then he started to join Sheridan. Two hours afterward 

GG 



482 Grant receives an Important Letter. [1865. 

an answer was brought to Meade, wlio promptly sent it 
forward. As Grant was halting in the edge of an open 
field, an orderly dashed up — his black steed covered with 
foam — saluted, and handed the dispatch to the chief. The 
staff looked on with intense interest. Grant leisurely tore 
off the end of the envelope and read the paper, his face as 
impassive as ever. But there was the faintest suggestion of 
a smile around his lips as he passed it to his friend. 

Grant. — "Here, General Rawlins." 

The chief-of- staff worn and pale, read, with flashing 
eyes : — 

"9th April, 1865. 
" General : — I received your note of this morning on the picket-line, 
whither I had come to meet you, and ascertain definitely what terms were 
embraced in your proposal of yesterday with reference to the surrender of 
this army. I now ask an interview, in accordance with the offer contained 
in your letter of yesterday, for that purpose. 

" R. E. Lee, General. 
" Lieutenant- General U. S. Grant. 1 ' 

Grant. — " Well, how do you think that will do ?" 
Rawlins. — " I think that will do." 
The two, sitting upon a log, conversed a few minutes 
and then the General sent this answer by two aides : — 

" General : — Yours of this date is but this moment (fifty minutes past 
eleven) received, in consequence of my having passed from the Richmond 
and Lynchburg to the Farmville and Richmond road. Am at this writing 
about four miles west of Wallace Church, and will push forward to the front 
for the purpose of meeting you. Notice sent to me on this road where you 
wish the interview to take place will meet me here. " 

Meanwhile, on the front, Sheridan, fancying that at day- 
light the enemy would attempt to break through, had 
induced Ord to move up the Army of the James. Ord, 
being senior, took command of the infantry, while Sheridan, 
now at ease because his cavalry, planted square across Lee' s 
path, was well supported, went forward to look after it. 

He found his men dismounted, and fighting gallantly. 
The enemy was making a fierce onset, for it was neck or 
nothing. Lee had ordered his advance, under Gordon, to 



1865.] Sheridan iist at the Death. 483 

cut its Tray through. Gordon's shattered troops, though 
worn by days of hunger, toilsome marching, and ceaseless 
attacks, showed something of their ancient fire, and were 
still a foe worthy of Sheridan' s steel. 

The morning was damp and foggy. Lee, at his head- 
quarters, clad in a new uniform, and his face serene as ever, 
was consulting with Mahone and Longstreet. The latter, 
with one arm in a sling from his old wound, ' * sat on the 
trunk of a felled tree, gravely smoking a cigar." Both 
subordinates agreed that unless Gordon succeeded, there 
was no further hope of escape. Lee said that Grant's terms 
had been extremely generous, but he was not certain they 
would still be proffered now that two days had intervened. 

News soon came that Gordon's attempt was fruitless. 
Lee mounted his horse, and started for the rear, saying : — 

" General Longstreet, I leave you in charge. I am going 
to hold a conference with General Grant." 

Gordon's men, charging impetuously, had driven the 
first line of Sheridan. But Sheridan held them until Ord 
could form, and then fell back for a dash on Gordon's left 
flank. The rebels cheered heartily when the cavalry drew 
off, but grew silent as death as it uncovered long lines of in- 
fantry waiting to receive them. Their last hope was gone ! 

Sheridan was giving the order for one of his irresistible 
charges, when a rider, bearing a white flag, galloped forward 
from the confederate ranks, asking a suspension of hostili- 
ties, as Lee was seeking Grant to effect a surrender. Sheri- 
dan, a little in the rear, received the news through the rinLrin_ r 
cheers of the men. He notified Ord ; and the whole army 
was halted on a crest overlooking Appomattox Court- IL >us ; 
and, in the valley beyond, Lee's remaining cavalry, infan- 
try, and artillery mingled in confusion. 

Sheridan and staff galloped straight toward the enemy's 
lines, supposing that hostilities were ended. But a rebel 
battery suddenly opening on them, shells shrieked all about 
their ears. They fortunately escaped harm, and fancying 
it a mistake, still advanced, waving their caps and white 
handkerchiefs. The battery, however, replied with another 
discharge, and they turned into a ravine. 



484 "South Carolinians never Surrender." C 1865 - 

The confederate officer who had brought the fiag-of-truce, 
deeply mortified at this firing, galloped to the rebel flank 
and demanded the cause. He was informed by a general 
from the Palmetto State that South Carolinians never sur- 
rendered. But Custer had already dashed around with his 
division to look after these fire-eaters. 

Sheridan wended his way to Appomattox Court-House 
between the picket lines, where he found the rebel generals, 
Gordon and Wilcox. At that moment the firing was re- 
newed, and Gordon ordered an aide to ride over and stop it. 

Sheridan. — "Never mind, never mind. I know what 
it is ; let them fight it out !" 

Custer made short work of the South Carolina brigadier 
who never surrendered. Union officers were soon greeting 
heartily old friends on the other side, whom they found 
jaded and despondent, and quite ready for reconstruction 
from their pocket flasks. 

Sheridan feared that the delay was a ruse to gain time ; 
but both confederate generals reassured him on their per- 
sonal good faith. So the armies quietly confronted each 
other, our tired men stretching themselves upon the ground, 
and showing no excitement after their first cheers. 

Appomattox Court-House boasted five dwellings. The 
largest — a square building of brick, with a yard smiling 
with roses, violets, and daffodils — belonged to one Wilmer 
McLean. Sheridan and Ord stood at the end of the one 
broad, grassy street, when Grant rode up covered with mud. 

Grant. — "How are you, Sheridan V 

Sheridan (his eyes twinkling and a smile all over his 
face). — "First rate, thank you ; how are you ?" 

Grant. — "Is General Lee up there V 

Sheridan. — " Yes." 

Grant. — " Well then, we will go up." 

The Lieutenant-General, accompanied by Ord, Sheri- 
dan, and their staffs, walked to the house of McLean, 
who was moving wildly about, nearly driven out of his 
senses by the great events of the day. Lee's blooded 
iron-gray horse — wearing a one-line bridle, and a plain 
Grimsley saddle with the owner's initials upon a corner 



1865.] Grant and Lee have an Interview. 485 

— was nibbling at the grass, in charge of a confederate 
orderly. Grant and two aides entering the house, while the 
rest sat down on the porch, found within the rebel leader 
and Colonel Marshall, his chief of staff. Lee stood beside 
a table, wearing this bright, bluish-gray uniform, a military 
hat with a gold cord, buckskin gauntlets, high riding- 
boots, and a beautiful sword. His hair and beard were 
long and gray. He was tall and soldierly, though much 
larger and heavier than the Union officers had supposed. 

Grant — with his slouched hat, dark-blue frock-coat, un- 
buttoned, and covered with mud, gray pantaloons tucked 
in his soiled boots, and a dark waistcoat — wore no sword, 
and no indication of his rank except the double row of but- 
tons on the breast of his coat and the three silver stars. 

The two shook hands, placed their hats upon the table, 
sat down, and talked of business. In three or four minutes 
details were agreed upon, Lee asking no modification of 
Grant's terms. Sheridan, Ord, and the rest were invited 
in and introduced. Lee said but little, and bore himself 
with dignity and modesty. After some general conversation, 
he and Grant conferred apart. Then, both leaders making 
occasional suggestions, Marshall on behalf of Lee, and 
Bowers and Parker on behalf of Grant, reduced the terms 
to writing, and made two fair copies : — 

"Appomattox Cottrt-House, Virginia, April 0, 1865. 
"General: — In accordance with the substance of my letter to you of 
the 8th instant, I propose to receive the surrender of the Army of North- 
ern Virginia on the following terms— to wit : Rolls of all the officers and men 
to be made in duplicate, one copy to be given to an officer to be designated 
by me, the other to be retained by such officer or officers as you may des- 
ignate. The officers to give their individual paroles not to take up arms 
against the Government of the United States until properly exchanged : 
each company or regimental commander sign a like parole for the men " 
their commands. The arms, artillery, and public property to be parked and 
stacked, and turned over to the officers appointed by me to receive them. 
This will not embrace the side-arms of the officers, nor their private 1: 
or baggage. This done, each officer and man will be allowed to return t 
his home, not to be disturbed by United States authority so long as they 
observe their paroles and the laws in force where they may result 

"U. S. Gbant, Lieutenant-General. 

" General R. E. Lee." 




486 It Results in Lee's Capitulation. [isgs. 

" Head-quaeters Army of Northern Virginia, April 9, 1865. 

"General: — I received your letter of this date containing the terms 

of the surrender of the Army of Northern Virginia as proposed by you. 

As they are substantially the same as those expressed in your letter of the 

eighth instant, they are accepted. I will proceed to designate the proper 

officers to carry the stipulations into effect. 

" R. E. Lee, General. 
"Lieutenant-General U. S. Grant." 



After the signatures were attached, Lee said that lie 
had forgotten one thing. Many cavalry and artillery horses 
in his army belonged to the men in charge of them ; "but, 
of course, it was too late to speak of that now. 

Grant (interrupting).— " I will instruct my paroling 
officers that all the enlisted men of your cavalry and artil- 
lery who own horses are to retain them, just as the officers 
do theirs. They will need them for their spring plowing 
and other farm work." 

Lee (with great earnestness). — "General, there is nothing 
you could have done to accomplish more good, either for 
them or for the Government." 

Lee further requested that each of his soldiers might be 
furnished with a parole, to protect him from confederate 
conscription officers, and Grant acquiesced.* 

Lee went out, and the aides of Sheridan, Ord, and 

* Henry C. Deming publishes Grant's oral account of this interview^ given at a 
dinner party: — 

'' I felt some embarrassment in the prospect of meeting General Lee. I had not 
seen him since he was General Scott's chief-of-staff in Mexico. And, in addition to 
the respect I entertained for him. the duty which I had to perform was a disagree- 
able one, and I wished to get through it as soon as possible. 

t: When I reached Appomattox Court- House, I had ridden that morning thirty- 
seven mdes. I was in my campaign clothes, covered with dust and mud. I had no 
sword. I was not even well-mounted. * * * I found General Lee in a fresh suit of 
confederate gray, with all the insignia of his rank, and at his side the splendid dress- 
sword which had been given to him by the State of Virginia. 

* * * u When I disclaimed any desire to have any parade, but said I should be con- 
tented with the delivery of arms to my officers and with the proper signature and 
authentication of paroles, he seemed to be greatly pleased. When I yielded the other 
point, that the officers should retain their side-arms and private baggage and horses, 
his emotions of satisfaction were plainly visible. * * * We parted with the same 
courtesies with which we had met. It seemed to me that General Lee evinced a 
feeling of satisfaction and relief when the business was finished." 



1865.] Satisfaction of Lee's Soldiers. 487 

Grant rose respectfully as lie passed down the steps of 
the piazza. He did not appear to notice them, but looking 
over into the green valley, upon his shattered army, " smote 
his hands together again and again in an absent and 
despairing way," until his orderly led up his horse. As he 
took the bridle, Grant walked by, touching his hat, and 
Lee replied with a similar salute. Then he returned to 
his lines. 

The Union commander rode to his head-quarters and sent 
a modest dispatch to Washington, which set the whole North 
ablaze, and the church-bells a ringing as they never rang 
before. * Through the evening, general officers crowded his 
little room, and nothing was heard but jubilant congratula- 
tions. The Army of the Potomac had forgotten all its fierce 
jealousies, and was transformed into a mutual admiration 
society. But the Army of the Potomac was also very 
sleepy, and went early to bed. 

Lee was received in his camp with the wildest cheers he 
had heard for many a long month. Southern journals after- 
ward insisted that they only expressed the sympathy of the 
rebel soldiers for their chief and for the Lost Cause. Doubt- 
less this* feeling was strong, but the knowledge that no more 
lives were to be sacrificed, and that Grant's terms were so 
unexpectedly moderate, was the chief motive. They beset 
their general in a dense mass, struggling forward to shake 
his hand. Lee — as little given to showing emotion as 
Grant— was affected to tears, and only said, in broken 
voice : — 

"Men, we have fought through the war together. I 
have done the best I could for you." 

McLean's house witnessed a wild scramble for relics. 

* War Department. Washington', P. C, { 
April 9, 1865—10 P.M. ) 

Ordered, that a salute of two hundred guns be fired at the head-quarters of every 
army and department and at every post and arsenal in the United States, aud at the 
military academy at West Point, on the day of the receipt of this order, in com- 
memoration of the surrender of General R. E. Lee, and the Army of Northern Vir- 
ginia, to Lieutenant- General Grant, and the army under his command. 

Edwin M. Stanton. 

Secretary of War. 



488 "I Want to Go Home." t 1865 - 

Soldiers scuffled over the furniture ; Ord paid fifty dollars 
for the marble-topped center-table upon which the agree- 
ment was signed, and Custer marched down the steps, 
bearing aloft the little side-table upon which it was copied. 
The men shouted at the top of their lungs, " Sheridan's 
robbers! Sheridan's robbers!" but Sheridan himself had 
paid twenty gold dollars for the relic, and was sending it 
with his compliments to Mrs. Custer. 

After the room was stripped of chairs and other u porta- 
ble property" — the purchasers flinging down greenbacks in 
return, though McLean insisted that he did not wish to sell — 
those who had drawn nothing in that lottery of muscle, 
stripped the garden of flowers, to send to their wives and 
sweethearts. 

That night, twenty thousand Union rations afforded the 
hungry confederates such a u feed " as they had not enjoyed 
for months. Meade's little head-quarters' printing-press 
clattered through the hours of darkness, striking off their 
paroles. 

The next morning the Lieutenant-General received a 
card, bearing the name of a West Virginia cousin, whom he 
had not seen since boyhood. The captured rebel was 
brought in. 

Grant. — " Are you one of Aunt Rachel's sons V 

Prisoner. — " Yes — Charley." 

Grant. — " What are you doing here ?" 

Prisoner. — "I have been fighting in Lee's army." 

Grant. — "Bad business, Charley. What do you want 
to do now V ' 

Prisoner. — "I want to go home!" 

Grant (laughing). — "Have you got a horse V 

Prisoner. — " No, mine was killed under me, day before 
yesterday." 

Grant. — "Have you got any money V 

Prisoner. — "No." 

The reconstructed cousin was furnished with fifty dol- 
lars, a horse, and a pass, and sent on his winding way. 
Gibbon, left in charge of the paroling, was instructed by 
the Lieutenant-General : — 



1865.] "The Old, Familiar Faces." 

"On completion of the duties assigned you at this place, you will pro- 
ceed * * * to Lynchburg, Va. It is desirable that there shall 1"- as little 
destruction of private property as possible. * * * On reaching the vicinity 
of Lynchburg, send a summons for the city to surrender. If it does so, 
all private property, and parole officers and men garrisoning the place, same 
as has been done here. If resistance is made, you will be governed by J 
own judgment about the best course to pursue, [f the city is Burrendi 
as it will in all probability be, take possession of all public stores. Bud 
may be of use to your command, appropriate to their use. The bala 
tribute among the poor of the city . Save all the rolling stock of the rail- 
roads, and if you find it practicable to do so, bring it t<> Farroville and 
destroy a bridge to the rear of it. Destroy no other portion of the road. 
All the warlike material you find, destroy or carry away with you. 1 ' 

The morning was very rainy, bnt at nine o'clock Grant 
rode to the Conrt-House to meet Lee by appointment. When 
lie and his staff reached the crest overlooking the little creek 
"between the two armies, Lee emerged from his tent on the 
other side, mounted and rode up. The two generals Baluted, 
and sitting upon their horses, twenty paces from the rest of 
the party, conversed for an hour about minor details of the 
surrender. Lee expressed his desire that hostilities might 
everywhere cease. Saluting again, he rode slowly back to 
lines. 

Grant (to his staff). — "I believe we arc all ready for 
our final return." 

His military family now embraced many able and faith- 
ful soldiers; but of "the old, familiar faces," only one was 
left. Some were dead, some disabled, some in other fields. 
Eawlins alone— and his health greatly impaired in the 
service— had remained with his chief from the firsl gun 
at Belmont to the last at Appomattox. It was four yeara 
almost to a day since his ringing words at the Galena m< 
ing:— "We will stand by the flag of our country, and 
appeal to the God of battles I" 

They started, reaching Prospect Station late a! night 
The head-quarters' train soon came up, and tents were 
pitched in an open field. As the party sat upon Logs on the 
muddy ground, around a roaring fire, Washburne arrive 
from the North. They conversed for an hour or two, then 
stretched themselves upon boards in their tents, to keep 



490 "All Quiet along the Potomac." [i865. 

them out of the water, and slept through their last night in 
camp. 

Next day they took the cars at Burke's Station, and at 
daybreak on the twelfth reached City Point, thoroughly 
worn out, and looking as if they thought sleep worth all 
the victories in the world, and had found the last ditch 
very muddy indeed. 

At Appomattox Court-House, three days after the sur- 
render, the confederates formed for the last time, and in 
columns thick with banners "but thin with men — they had 
"been more lavish of lives than colors — delivered up their 
arms, which our troops, who had so often felt their valor, 
received in sympathetic silence. General Chamberlain, of 
the Union army, relates that the rebels dressed lines ; fixed 
bayonets; stacked their muskets; flung their cartridge- 
boxes on the pile ; and slowly furled their flags and laid 
them down, many with tears streaming from their eyes, and 
some stooping tenderly to kiss the faded, shot-torn colors. 

Through the entire day this continued, the disarmed men 
streaming to the provost-marshal's office for their paroles, 
and then starting for home. Nearly all were penniless. 
One officer said : — "You astonish us with your generosity ;" 
another: — "I loved the cause, but we are thoroughly 
beaten ; now the Stars and Stripes are my flag, and I will 
be as true to it as you." Gordon remarked: — "This is 
bitterly humiliating to me ; but I console myself by think- 
ing that the whole country rejoices at this day's work." 
The redoubtable Henry A. Wise said: — "We won't be 
forgiven ; Ave hate you, and that is the whole of it ! We 
have no homes; you have destroyed them." "Well," 
replied Chamberlain, " you should not have challenged us. 
We expected somebody would get hurt when we came 
down here." 

Farewell the plumed troop, the spirit-stirring drum, the 
ear-piercing fife ! All was quiet along the Potomac. "Ham- 
mering continuously" had reduced the granite wall to a 
mass of powder. 




z-:i.~^ s * 



1865.] Relative Strength oe Grant and Lee. 



CHAPTER XLI. 



THE ASSASSINATION. 



The respective strength of Grant and Let 1 , at the begin- 
ning of the campaign of 1864, has already been given (pagee 
411-12). On the thirtieth of June, 1864, at the close of two 
months of terrible fighting, Grant, after detaching the Sixth 
Corps and two divisions of Sheridan's cavalry to meet Early, 
had left confronting Lee, "present for duty equipped" : — 

Army of the Potomac 54,712 men 

Army of the James 30,583 " 

Total 85,295 

Lee having sent away his Second (Early's, late E well's) 
Army Corps, had remaining on Grant's front, according i<> 
his field return of June thirtieth, 1864 : — 

Present for duty 54,751 men 

This was exclusive of Dealing's brigade of Pitz Hugh 
Lee's division of cavalry on duty near Pet< irsburg, bul 
omitted from the return. It shows Lee's force to have been 
much larger than he has generally been credited with. 

On the twentieth of March, 1865, Grant's entire forces be- 
fore Richmond, ''present for duty equipped" numbered : 

Army of James 85,4 1 1 

Army of Potomac 84,778 

Total 120,189 . 

I find no official statement of Lee's strength on thai day j 
but the prisoners captured from and surrendered by him 
between then and the close of the campaign afford valuable 
data for estimating it. These, derived from official souroi - 
foot up as follows : — 

March 25. — Assault on Fort Steadman 

" 29 to April 9, inclusive 

April 9. — Final surrender 2..-H» > 

Total 4MW 



492 Grant's Total Losses m 1864-5. [ ises. 

Two brigades of his cavalry escaped before the surren- 
der. No one familiar with armies in the field will need to 
be told that the number of stragglers on such a campaign 
must have been very large. Ten thousand men seems to 
be a moderate estimate for the stragglers and the two 
brigades. Fifty-nine thousand of Lee' s effectives are thus 
accounted for. His disabled only remain to be estimated. 
Weitzel found five thousand wounded in Richmond alone ; 
and Lee's casualties during the entire campaign, begin- 
ning with his heavy loss at Fort Steadman, were indis- 
putably very large. He had called in all his detachments 
from the Shenandoah and elsewhere ; and it would seem that 
his effective force on the twentieth of March, 1865, must 
have been fully seventy thousand men. 

Grossly exaggerated reports of Grant's losses during 
both campaigns have obtained currency. One, claiming to 
be official, is frequently cited by writers on both sides. It 
gives the Union killed, wounded, and missing, during the 
fighting in the Wilderness, at twenty-nine thousand four 
hundred and ten ; and the aggregate losses of the Army of 
the Potomac alone, from May to November, 1864, at eighty- 
eight thousand three hundred and eighty-seven. 

Its figures were compiled from "field returns." These, 
collected immediately after a battle, always include among 
the missing and wounded, and frequently among the killed, 
many whose injuries, though so slight as not to disable 
them, are noted by the surgeons ; and hosts of stragglers, 
who play " old soldier" as long as the guns pound or the 
bullets ping. When the fighting ends, however, the ' ' old 
soldiers" come back to draw their rations. Hence, regi- 
mental returns alone give the losses of an army with 
accuracy. In every conflict of the war, they reduced enor- 
mously the casualties of the field returns. 

The report alluded to above was found glaringly inaccu- 
rate by the military committee of Congress. The Adjutant- 
General, therefore, had carefully compiled for the Volunteer 
Register of the Armies of the United States, a statement 
made up from the regimental returns on file in his office 
and verified by the muster and pay rolls, as far as access 



1865.] Compiled from the Official Records. 



493 



could be had to them. This statement is complete, and 
trustworthy. It gives, in tabular form, the losses of each 
brigade in the armies during every engagement, with a 
"grand recapitulation" of the whole. An official copy 
has been furnished me, but its great length forbids giving 
it in full, as it would fill many of these pages. The follow- 
ing, however, is the recapitulation, authenticated by the 
First Assistant Adjutant- General : — 

" Grand recapitulation of the losses sustained by the Army of tlte 
Potomac and the Army of the James, from May 5, 1864, to 
April 9, 1865. 



NAME OF BATTLE, ETC. 



Wilderness. May 5 to 7, 1S64 

Swift Creek and Chester Station, May 6 to 10, 1 64 

Spottsylvania, May 8 to 21, 1S64 

Drury's Bluff. May 12 to 1 6, 1SG4 

North Anna, May 23 to 27, 1SG4 

Tolopotomey, May 2S to 31, 1S64 

Cold Harbor and Bethesda Church, May 31 to 

June 12, 1SG4 

Deep Bottom, July 25 to 28, 1S64 

Deep Bottom, August 14 to 18, 1S64 

Weldon Railroad, August 18 to 21, 1S64 

Beam's Station, August 25, 1S64 

Chapin's Farm, Sept. 29 and 30, 1S64 

Poplar Spring Church, Sept. 30 and Oct. 1 and 2. 

Darbytown Road, Oct. 7. 1864 

Darby town Road, Oct. 13, 1S64 

Hatcher's Run and Boydton Road, Oct. 27 and 

23, 1SG4 

Fair Oaks, Oct. 27 and 28, 1SG4 

Hatcher's Run, Feb. 5, 6, and 7, 1S< 5 

Dinwiddio Court-House, March 30, 1S65 

Five Forks. April 1, 1SG5 

Amelia Springs and Court-House, April 5, 1SG5. . 
Sailor's Creek and Rice's Statiou, April G, 1SG5.. 

Farmville and High Bridge, April 7. 1S65 

Appomattox Court-House, April 9, 1SG5 

Siege and assaults at Petersburg, from June 16, 

1864, to April 2, 1S65 

Cavalry Corps, from May 9, '64, to April 8, '65... 

Miscellaneous — minor engagements 

General and general staff officers 

Total 



fed 



117 

4 

119 

17 

11 

b 

106 

12 

11 
15 

IS 

111 

6 

i 

10 



140 
25 
16 
21 



696 



2.144 

SO 

2,152 

373 

175 

94 

1,668 

45 
247 

1S6 

77 

876 

140 

SS 

15 

138 

74 

107 

2 

92 

1 

134 

51 

14 

3,079 
270 
155 



11.907 



WOUNDED. 


MISSI 


o 


W 


O 


Si 


3 g, 


~ 


a 




a 














t» 


: ~ 


Cfl 


372 


8,413 


99 


10 


434 


— 


37S 


8,982 


31 


67 


1,654 


40 


28 


764 





14 


344 


— 


279 


6,478 


<>-> 


17 


i-;. 


— 


G2 


1.177 


14 


Gl 


764 


16 


41 


344 


Gl 


96 


1,458 


10 


26 


4S4 


84 


14 


249 


9 


4 


163 


— 


45 


60S 


r. 


26 


40S 


IT 


24 


512 

2 

267 


4 


25 





— 


4 


2 


34 


4G1 


1 


20 


105 


— 


2 


74 


4 


550 


11,794 


121 


70 


768 


59 


80 


349 


15 


29 


— 


• 


2,324 


47,285 


6S7 



I. 



2,808 

oi 

1,989 

1,850 

160 



1,504 

19 

601 

698 

1,615 

814 

1,814 

2 19 

17 

4-:l 



6 
16 

■ 

9 
64 

8,751 
1,622 



18,948 

589 

18,601 

1,1 48 

10,058 
2,018 

2,278 
2,009 

1,284 
1,108 

3 

199 
158 



19,911 



"The above statement is made up from regimental records, except i 

cases of general and general staff officers." 

War Department, Adjutant-General's Offh 

Washington, May 19, 1868. ) 

Brevet Major-General John A. Rawlins, Chief-of-Stalf, Armies erf the 
United States: 
General: — In compliance with your request of the 22d ult., I have to 



494 Sheridan's Shenandoah Valley Losses. [1865. 

transmit herewith statement from the regimental records on file in this 
office, showing the losses sustained by the Army of the Potomac, in killed, 
wounded, and missing, from May 5th, 1864, to April 9th, 1865 ; also state- 
ment from the regimental records on file, showing the losses sustained by 
the Army of the James, in killed, wounded, and missing, from May 5th, 1864, 
to April 9th, 1865, together with the recapitulation, showing a total of losses 
sustained by both armies during the period above named. 
Very respectfully, your obedient servant, 

E. D. TOWNSEND, 

Assistant Adjutant-General. 

Sheridan's campaign in the Shenandoah Valley being 
also a part of the same operations, I append an official state- 
ment of his losses, as shown by his field returns. The regi- 
mental returns would reduce it materially, but were not 
applied for in season to have a table compiled. 

"Losses sustained by the United States forces^ commanded by Major- 
General P. II. Sheridan — Campaign in the Shenandoah Val- 
ley, Va., 1864. 



COMMAND. 



Sixth Army Corps. 



Nineteenth Army Corps 



Army of West Virginia. 



Provisional Division. 
Cavalry 



BATTLE. 



Opequan 

Fisher's Hiil 

Cedar Creek 

Reconnoissances and minor 
engagements 

Opequan 

Fisher's Hill 

Cedar Creek 

Reconnoissances and minor 
engagements 

Opequan and Fisher's Hill.. . 

Cedar Creek 

Reconnoissances and minor 
engagements 

Cedar Creek 

Opequan 

Tims Creek 

Cedar Creek 

Twenty-six other engage- 
ments 



Total . 



September 19.. . 

" 22 . . 

October 19....' 

September 19... 

" 22 . . 

October 19. . . '. . 

Sept. 19 and 22. 
October 19 

October 19 

September 19. . 

October 9 

" 19 



ST 

p. 


e 
P 
p 

m 


CO* 
CP 

5' 
a; 


213 


1,424 


4S 


24 


210 


3 


255 


1,CC6 


294 


86 


665 


11 


275 


1 298 


453 


11 


'47 


2 


243 


1,352 


893 


5T 


446 


13 


105 


840 


8 


46 


268 


533 


150 


839 


96 


19 


91 


121 


65 


267 


109 


9 


48 


— 


25 


139 


50 


355 


2.363 


4S7 


1.93S 


11.893 


3,121 



> 

m 

03 



1,6S5 

237 

2,215 

762 

1,956 

60 

2,483 

516 
953 

847 

1,0S5 
231 
441 

57 
214 

3.205 



16.952 



[Official.] T. W. C. MOORE, 

Assistant Adjutant-General.' 1 

Sheridan' s raid from Winchester to Petersburg, Febru- 
ary twenty- seventh to March twenty-sixth, 1865, is not 



1S65.] Rebel Prisoners Captured by Grant. 495 

included in the above statements. His official report says 
"My losses all told did not exceed one hundred. " 

SUMMARY OF CASUALTIES IN GRANT'S ARMIES— 1804-3. 

Army of the Potomac and James 8-2, 720 

Sheridan in Shenandoah Valley 46 952 

Sheridan's Raid, Winchester to Petersburg i()0 

Grand Total gg 770 

Exclusive of the slight loss during Sheridan's raid, these 
were divided as follows : — 

Killed 14,601 

Wounded C 1 ,452 

Missing 23,619 

Lee' s forces were dispersed so suddenly at last that the 
aggregate of their killed and wounded can only be reached 
by estimate. In 1864, Grant's casualties in Eastern Virginia 
were much the greater; but in the Shenandoah Valley 
Sheridan's were far less than Early's. In ISC'), Lee's 
killed and wounded, beginning with his disastrous assault 
upon Fort Steadman, were very largely in excess of Grant's. 

The complete official statements given below on another 
branch of the subject, are indispensable to any just judg- 
ment upon the comparative generalship of Grant and Lee : — 

Wab Department, Adjotant-Gbneeal's Office, [ 
Washington, May 5, 1S63. J 

Brevet Major- General JonN A. Rawlins, Chief of Staff, \ 
Armies of the United States. S 

General: — In reply to your inquiry of April 25, 18GS, I have to inform 
you that the records of Rebel Prisoners of "War, on file in this office, Bhow 
that the number of prisoners captured by the Annies of the Potomac and 
the James, from May 1, 1864, to April 9, 1SG5, amounts to sixty-six thousand 
five hundred and twelve (66,512).* 

I am, General, very respectfully, your obedient servant, 

E. I). Townsend, Asst. AajL-Gen. 

IlEAIVQrARTERS, MlLITAKT DIVISION OF TIIF. GlJXF, OFFICE OF THE CHlEf [ 

Signal Offices, New Orleans, La., November IS, 18 
Major-General P. IT. Sheridan, U. S. Army. 

General: — I have the honor to report that the number of confederate 
prisoners received by the forces under your command, from Angudl 1. 1864, 
to March 1, 1865, was about thirteen thousand (13,000). The names of 

* This includes captures by Sheridan's cavalry while operating with the armies. 



496 The Generalship He Displayed. [1865. 

nearly that number are recorded on the books recently used in the office of 
the provost-marshal general, Middle Military Division. 

Respectfully submitted, 

E. B. Parsons, 
Late Provost-Marshal-General Middle Military Division' 
Official. 

T. W. C. Moore, 

Asst.-Adjt.-Gen'l. 

SUMMARY OF CAPTURES BY GRANT'S ARMIES— 18G4-5. 

Captured by Sheridan in Shenandoah Valley, 1864 13,000 

Sheridan's raid, Winchester to Petersburg, ending March 26, 1865. . 1,600 

Armies of Potomac and James, May 1, 1864, to April 9, 1865 39,096 

Lee's surrender, April 9, 1865 27,416 

Grand Total 81,112 

Grant's captures alone, after he assumed the chief com- 
mand, exceed eighty per cent, on the aggregate of his killed, 
wounded, and missing. Any reasonable estimate of the 
rebel killed and wounded swells Lee's losses enormously 
above his. 

Grant' s military advantages lay chiefly in large superi- 
ority of resources in men and supplies. Lee' s, in his acting 
on the defensive ; interior lines ; familiarity with the coun- 
try ; and armies fighting upon their own soil. 

The military student will always admire Lee' s effective 
use of his slender means, his vigilance in divining the plans 
of his adversary, and his promptness and skill in throw- 
ing forces to the right spot and at the right moment, to 
baffle them. He will also admire Grant's indomitable en- 
ergy, steadfast persistency, and unfaltering courage. But 
these will not obscure his higher qualities : the wonderful 
penetration which discovered in a modest young acting 
quartermaster — an unassuming lieutenant-colonel of engi- 
neers — and a brigadier-general of volunteers reputed crazy, 
three of the world' s great captains ; the unerring sagacity 
which intrusted to Sheridan all the cavalry in Sixty-four, 
and the perilous honor of the advance in Sixty-five ; the 
comprehensive judgment which directed every part of the 
masterly final campaign ; the quick perception which found 
the vulnerable heel the moment it was exposed, and turned 
Lee's one mistake — his remaining a little too long at Peters- 



/" 



1865 -] His Feeling at the Close. 497 

"burg— into his irretrievable ruin. It was simply a higher 
exhibition of the self-same generalship which took advan- 
tage of the more flagrant blunders of Pillow at Donelson, 
of Pemberton at Vicksburg, of Bragg at Chattanooga. 

The conflict ended, Grant was thoroughly satisfied, mag- 
nanimous, and hopeful. The conclusion of his admiral)].' 
final report was an index of his feeling and his character :— 

" It has been my fortune to see the armies of both the West and the East 
fight battles, and from what I have seen I know there is no difference in their 
fighting qualities. All that it was possible for men to do in battle they have 
done. The Western armies commenced their battles in the Mississippi Val- 
ley, and received the final surrender of the remnant of the principal ai 
opposed to them in North Carolina. The armies of the East commenced 
their battles on the river from which the Army of the Potomac derived its 
name, and received the final surrender of their old antagonist at Appomattox 
Court-House, Virginia. The splendid achievements of each have nationalized 
our victories, removed all sectional jealousies (of which we have, unfortu- 
nately, experienced too much), and the cause of crimination and recrimina- 
tion that might have followed had either section failed in its duty. 

"All have a proud record, and all sections can well congratulate them- 
selves and each other for having done their full share in restoring the su- 
premacy of law over every foot of territory belonging to the United S: 
Let them hope for perpetual peace and harmony with that enemy, whose man- 
hood, however mistaken the cause, drew forth such herculean deeds of vol 

President Lincoln, arriving at Washington after Lee's 
surrender, was serenaded on the eleventh of April, by an 
immense gathering. He responded in a conversational 
speech, favoring the early restoration of the rebel States to 
their political rights, on the bases of general amnesty, and 
impartial suffrage to black and white. Of a moremenl 
already begun to reorganize Louisiana, he said : — 

"Concede that the new government there is only to 
what it should be as the egg is to the fowl — we shall 
sooner have the fowl by hatching the egg than by smash- 
ing it." 

Grant reached the capital on the morning of the thir- 
teenth. He was extremely busy, and before night an or- 
der had been issued from the War Department directing 
Government agents to stop all drafting and recruiting, and 
all purchasing of ammunition, arms, and provisions. 

Evening brought an illumination of the public buildings 



I1H 



498 Attends a Cabinet Meeting. t 1865 - 

never equaled in Washington. The enthusiasm knew no 
bounds. It was the popular ratification of Lee's surren- 
der. At various points there were impromptu public meet- 
ings and speeches. At the President' s request, the General 
drove out with Mrs. Lincoln to look at the display. As soon 
as the people saw him, they gave him nine cheers, followed 
by nine more for Lincoln. This was repeated everywhere. 
The next day — the fourth anniversary of the capture of 
Fort Sumter by the rebels — was to be forever memorable 
in American history. The President, in unusually good 
spirits, breakfasted with his son Robert, listening to an 
account of Lee's surrender. Hearing that Schuyler Colfax 
was in the house, he hurried from the table to join him in 
the reception-room, and talked with him for an hour on his 
future policy. He also gave Colfax — -just starting on an over- 
land journey to the Pacific — a written message to the miners. 
Then remarking that he was going to Ford' s Theater that 
night, to see " Our American Cousin," he asked : — 
" What sort of a play is that ?" 

Colfax replied that it was good to drive dull care away. 
At eleven o'clock there was the most cheerful cabinet 
meeting which had been held for many years. Grant was 
present by special invitation. All felt that the administra- 
tion had proved a great success, and talked over plans for 
the early restoration of the South. Stanton made an elabo- 
rate argument to show that ample powers of reconstruction 
vested in the Executive, without the aid of Congress. 
Lincoln. — u Have you heard from Sherman V 
GpwANT. — "No, but I am expecting hourly a dispatch 
announcing Johnston's surrender." 

Lincoln. — ' ; I am sure you will get important news 
soon." 

To the General's look of inquiry the President explained 
that usually before any exciting occurrence — as Bull Run, 
Antietam, and Gettysburg — he had the same curious dream. 
" I had it again last night," he continued, " and, (turning 
to the Secretary of the Navy) it is in your line, too. I see 
a ship sailing very rapidly, and it always precedes some 
important event." 



1865.] Abraham Lincoln is Murdered. 499 

After the meeting broke up, Grant returned to his office 
and to hard work. He hoped to leave that night, via 
Philadelphia, for Burlington, New Jersey, where his chil- 
dren were at school. Mrs. Lincoln had urged him and Mrs. 
Grant to accompany the President and herself and Secre- 
tary and Mrs. Stanton to the theater. During the day, 
however, Mrs. Grant packed their trunks at the hotel ; and, 
completing his labors just in season, the General sent a 
verbal message of excuse to Mrs. Lincoln, and drove with 
his wife to the station. It was afterward remembered that 
Wilkes Booth galloped beside the carriage for a few yards, 
looking in to see who the inmates were. 

Evening found the President weary, and longing to stay 
at home ; but it had been publicly announced that he and 
Grant would be present ; and, always unwilling to disap- 
point any one, he went to the theater. 

There, at half-past ten, while lie was leaning over the 
front of his private box, with his chin resting on his elbow 
and his eyes fixed upon the stage, John Wilkes Booth — one 
of the family of eminent actors — entered the box, shut the 
door behind him, and fired a revolver, with the muzzle press- 
ed to the back of the President' s head. The ball penetrated 
the brain, and lodged just behind the right eye. Abraham 
Lincoln's head fell forward, his eyes closed, and he did 
not speak again. Though he lived for nine hours, lie 
seemed to suffer no pain, and probably never knew in 
this world of the violence which hastened his passage to the 
next. 

The assassin struck with his dagger Major Rathbone, 
who attempted to restrain him ; and, shouting " Sic semper 
tyrannis" jumped from the box to the stage. His 
caught in the star-spangled banner which draped the front, 
and he fell, so spraining his ankle that ultimately his flight 
was crippled. The flag he hated proved the cause of his 
final doom. 

But now, springing up, he brandished his dagger, and 
exclaimed, " The South is avenged !" Then, running out 
through the back door of the theater, he mounted his horse, 
which had been left with a boy, and galloped away toward 



500 Profound Grief of the Country. t 18G5 - 

Maryland, before the paralyzed spectators could compre- 
hend the great tragedy they had witnessed. 

At the same moment, Secretary Seward, recently thrown 
from his carriage, was lying in bed, with his lower jaw frac- 
tured and his right arm broken. Another assassin, known 
as Payne, entered his house, and, professing to be a messen- 
ger from the physician, found his way to the Secretary's bed- 
side. He twice snapped a pistol at the invalid's son, and 
finally flung him to the floor, fracturing his skull. He 
aimed three stabs at Seward's throat, cutting his face and 
neck terribly, but at the third blow the Secretary of State 
rolled out of bed on the farther side. Payne wounded an 
attendant who seized him, and then escaped, stabbing two 
more men who attempted to stop him. 

Arrangements had been perfected for murdering Grant 
also, but his unexpected departure frustrated them. He 
and Mrs. Grant, reaching Philadelphia at midnight, drove 
across the city in a carriage, and were taking luncheon in a 
little restaurant near the railway ferry, when a dispatch 
came from Stanton announcing the tragedy. The General 
went on to Burlington with his wife, and then returned 
to Washington by special train. 

The next morning, when all the journals appeared with 
their columns in mourning, everywhere from ocean to ocean, 
business was suspended, and not only women and children, 
but strong men were moved to tears. Abraham Lincoln 
had won the hearts of the people, especially of the humble 
people. No crowded city tenement was so squalid, no 
prairie log-cabin so rude that its inmates did not put on 
badge or ribbon in mark of their profound sorrow. 

The saddest mourners were of the race he had done so 
much to redeem. On a West Indian island, a few months 
afterward, negroes just from Africa were found wearing on 
their bosoms photographs of Lincoln, and • cherishing in 
their hearts a simple faith that he would yet return to 
enfranchise them. From governments and peoples in 
every quarter of the globe came tributes to the memory 
of the great and good President, and words of sympathy to 
the bereaved nation. 



1865.] Frantic Demands for Severity. 501 



CHAPTER XLII. 



THE FRENCH IX MEXICO. 



Before Lincoln's death, a large portion of the North — 
the hot blood of war doubly inflamed by the slow starvation 
of thousands of Union soldiers in Southern prisons — had 
been impatient at his mildness and lenity to the rebels. His 
murder brought frantic demands for severity and retaliation ; 
and the people congratulated themselves that Vice-Presi- 
dent Andrew Johnson, promoted to his vacant place by the 
assassin' s bullet, had always breathed out threatenings and 
slaughter against rebels, and would be bloody, bold, and 
resolute. 

Grant had given his very liberal terms at Appomat- 
tox, partly from policy. He knew that if Lee declined 
them his troops could not be kept together after learn- 
ing their nature ; and that if he accepted, Johnston's army 
also, learning their generosity, would grow clamorous for 
peace. 

He had given them partly from feeling. Like all our 
soldiers, he realized how fearfully the South had been 
punished ; and if the rebels were now willing to lay down 
their arms, obey the laws, and not oppress Union white men 
or Union black men at the South, he thought it unworthy of 
a great people to degrade or humiliate them. He wanted 
no more bloodshed, no vengeance, no requiring that men 
who had staked all should be glad that they had lost all, or 
manifest any sudden affection for their conquerors. The 
national authority restored ; those who had helped to restore 
it fully protected from their late foes ; and he was willing to 
leave the rest to the softening influences of time. But the 
demand of the moment that some at least of the rebel 
leaders be hanged "as an example to posterity," subjected 
him to considerable criticism. 



502 Sherman's Treaty Disapproved. [1865. 

Sherman, advancing in North Carolina, received* a note 
from Joseph E. Johnston, looking toward a surrender. He 
granted an armistice, and — mindful only of President Lin- 
coln's general lenity, and his recent permission to the Vir- 
ginia rebel legislature to convenef — agreed to articles of 
capitulation based upon the disbanding of the confederate 
armies, and submitting to the national authority on the one 
hand, and general amnesty and recognition of existing State 
governments in the insurgent districts on the other. These 
governments were Union in the States we already hold — 
rebel in the rest. 

Sherman's treaty stated upon its face that it would be 
null and void, unless approved by the Government. But 
he was confident that it would be satisfactory, and dispatched 
a staff-officer to Washington with a copy. 

The North — stirred to the heart by Lincoln's assassina- 
tion ; a little dissatisfied with Grant's terms to Lee, and now 
in a condition to exact far severer ones — disapproved it 
utterly. President Johnson rejected it, and Stanton set 
forth the reasons in a public order, in terms needlessly 
offensive, and seemingly intended to disgrace — for one mis- 
take — the gallant and patriotic soldier who had added new 
luster to his country' s fame, and done splendid service in 
her darkest hours. 

Grant, sent forward by the Government, reached Sher- 
man' s head-quarters on the twenty-fourth of April, to in- 
form him that the terms were countermanded, and order 
him to resume hostilities under his own immediate super- 
vision. Though disapproving Sherman' s conditional treaty, 
the Lieutenant- General had stood lip manfully for him at 
Washington, and he now made this ungracious mission as 
agreeable as he could. 

Sherman, promptly acquiescing, demanded the surrender 
of Johnston's army on the same terms which had been 
accorded to Lee. The demand was acceded to. Grant in- 
terfered in no details, and Johnston first learned of his 
presence from the indorsement on the treaty : — "Approved. 
U. S. Grant, Lieii tenant-General." 

* April fourteenth. f Page 475. 



1865.] Grant recommends I^ee's Pardon. 503 

Grant established Ms head- quarters in Washington. On 
the sixth day of May he wrote to Halleck : — 

" Although it would meet with opposition in the North to allow Lee the 
benefit of amnesty, I think it would have the best possible effect toward re- 
storing good feeling and peace in the South to have him come in. All the 
people, except a few political leaders in the South, will accept whatever he 
does as right, and will be guided to a great extent by his example." 

Lee, being afterward indicted for treason by a Virginia 
grand jury, the General* earnestly recommended that his 
application for amnesty and pardon be granted, and all 
similar indictments quashed. He urged : — 

" In my opinion, the officers and men paroled at Appomattox Court- 
House, and since, upon the same terms given to Lee, can not be tried for 
treason so long as they observe the terms of their parole. This is my under- 
standing. Good faith, as well as true policy, dictates that we should observe 
the conditions of that convention. Bad faith on the part of the Government, 
or a construction of that convention subjecting the officers to trial for treason, 
would produce a feeling of insecurity in the minds of all the paroled officers 
and men. If so disposed, they might even regard such an infraction of terms 
by the Government as an entire release from all obligations on their part." 

The confederacy died hard. Sheridan, sent to knock it 
off its last legs in Texas, departed without a word of fare- 
well to his cavalry. Indeed, he never issued congratulatory 
orders, and was as little given to "the show business " as 
his chief. Before he reached the Southwest, however, the 
rebels had dispersed to their homes. 

The last gun in the war of the rebellion was fired in a 
skirmish near the Rio Grande on the thirteenth of May. 
On the sixteenth, the Government paroled and liberated 
all prisoners of war — sixty- three thousand. Those who 
surrendered with the various rebel commands numbered on 
paper one hundred and seventy-five thousand — actually 
about one hundred thousand. The rolls of our armies 
showed one million of men, of whom six hundred thousand 
were bearing muskets. Four months afterward, nearly 
five- sixths had been mustered out, and the country saw the 
wonderful spectacle of the quiet return of all these soldiers 

* June sixteenth. 



504 Farewell Order to the Army. [lse* 

to their farms and firesides, and to perfect subordination to 
the civil law. 

But first, Grant' s and Sherman' s armies were reviewed 
in Washington* by the Lieutenant-General, the President, 
and other high officials. It was the grandest military dis- 
play ever witnessed in America — perhaps in the world. 
Thousands of lookers-on showered the tattered colors with 
flowers, and thousands of school children sang to the end- 
less processions of blue, "When Johnny comes Marching 
Home," and other airs of welcome and congratulation. 

Banners were hung out from nearly all buildings, and 
the garlanded mottoes displayed : " Honor to the Brave !" 
" Welcome Soldiers !" and hundreds more. At the White 
House, the stand occupied by Johnson, Grant, and Sher- 
man, was festooned with starry flags, inscribed "Atlanta," 
"Wilderness," "Shiloh," "Vicksburg," and the rest. 
At the other end of the city, the bold, white Avail of the 
capitol bore the inscription: "The only national debt we 
can never pay, is the debt we owe to the victorious Union 
soldiers /' ' 

On the second of June the Lieutenant-General issued this 
final order to the late defenders of the republic : — 

"Soldiers of the Army of the United States: — By your patriotic de- 
votion to your country in the hour of danger and alarm, your magnificent 
fighting, bravery, and endurance, you have maintained the supremacy of the 
Union and the Constitution, overthrown all armed opposition to the en- 
forcement of the laws, and of the proclamations forever abolishing slavery 
(the cause and pretext of the rebellion), and opened the way to the rightful 
authorities to restore order, and inaugurate peace on a permanent and en- 
during basis on every foot of American soil. 

" Your marches, sieges, and battles, in distance, duration, resolution, and 
brilliancy of results, dim the luster of the world's past military achieve- 
ments, and will be the patriot's precedent in defense of liberty and right in 
all time to come. 

u In obedience to your country's call, you left your homes and families 
and volunteered in its defense. Victory has crowned your valor and secured 
the purpose of your patriotic hearts ; and with the gratitude of your 
countrymen and the highest honors a great and free nation can accord, you 
will soon be permitted to return to your homes and families, conscious of 
having discharged the highest duty of American citizens. 

* May twenty-second — twenty -third. 



^Gk] Reception in ¥ew York. 505 

" To achieve the glorious triumphs, and secure to yourselves, your fellow- 
countrymen, and posterity the blessings of free institutions, tens of thousands 
of your gallant comrades have fallen and sealed the priceless legacy with 
their lives. The graves of these, a grateful nation bedews with tears, 
honors their memories, and will ever cherish and support their stricken 
families." 

During the same month, returning from a visit to West 
Point, Grant was the victim of a reception at the Fifth 
Avenue Hotel in New York. The throng was brilliant, and 
the long parlors decorated with tuberoses, jessamines, helio- 
tropes, and camellias in the form of an American flag, and 
inclosing the letters, "U. S. G." A writer who "assisted," 
pictures the scene : — 

"After one got safely away from the hat and badge rooms, and endured 
for an hour and a half the pressure of the crowd, he found himself at the 
door of the reception-room, on the very threshold of his desire. 

" Instantly he is caught by a committee-man, passed on to another, 
seized by a third, squeezed by a fourth, who asks his name. 'Wiggins,' he 
says; 'Mr. Nichols,' says the committee-man. Guest bows to the General, 
but finds himself pushed in front of Mrs. Grant, who smiles, partly at his 
awkwardness, partly to reassure him. Before he fairly knows who he is, 
where he is, or what he is about, he is passed on by a deputation ot excited 
committee-men — ' Come now, my dear sir, hurry up, pass on ; this is no time 
for little speeches ' — and, embarrassed, perplexed, discomfited, and in every 
way miserable, on he goes. 

"In front of the flowers stood General Grant, with committees about 
him like bees about a lump of sugar. In front stretched the multitude, 
shouting, jostling, hot, tired, cross, and excited, bothered and badgered, 
pushed and pulled by the infelicitous committee. Some pious people offered 
prayers for the General as they passed. Others took the opportunity to 
make little speeches, such as, ' I'm so glad to see you. God bless and pre- 
serve you many years. This is my eldest son, William Mason — ^ illie, tell 
General Grant the little prayer you say for him every night.' Willie attempts, 
but is passed on by the relentless officials." 

Grant had been tried thus far in leading troops person- 
ally in the field ; in having the sole direction of a million of 
soldiers in a dozen different armies between the Atlantic and 
the Rocky Mountains ; and in counseling the Government 
only when asked — upon its military and civil policy. Cir- 
cumstances now brought out, in unmistakable form, his 
views upon our foreign relations. 



506 Sheridan on Mexican Affairs. [ 18 ^5. 

Through the Pacific States a war to expel the troops of 
Louis Napoleon, who had invaded Mexico to establish an 
imperial government, would have been universally popular. 
The whole nation, keenly felt that its traditional policy 
would never have been thus defied, that no foreign power 
would have ventured to interfere in affairs on this conti- 
nent, but for our weakness during the rebellion. 

Several leading spirits of the late confederacy now mi- 
grated to Mexico, and attempted to take many followers. 
Sheridan had voluminous correspondence with his chief on 
the subject : — 

New Orleans, June fourth — Sheridan to Grant — Telegram. 

"There has been a great deal of discussion on the subject of going to 
Mexico, and there is an undoubted intention on the part of many to go. 
Some are for the imperial side and some for the liberals, and there is a very 
bad element in Texas. In view of the foregoing, which is unfavorable to 
quiet, peaceful pursuits, and to the fact that I have always believed that Max- 
imilian's advent into Mexico was a part of the rebellion, I will advise that a 
strong force be put into Texas, and will order the Fourth Corps there as 
soon as sea transportation can be prepared. Steele is off with his command 
to the Rio Grande, and Granger will get off as soon as transports ordered by 
the quartermaster-general get to Mobile. * * * This may seem like employ- 
ment of a large force, to you, but it is always best to go strong-handed. The 
imperial lists are strengthening at Matamoras now, and, according to reports, 
the confederate property at Brownsville, including fourteen pieces of artil- 
lery, has been taken across the river to that place." 

On the thirteenth Sheridan reported that without the 
Fourth Corps he should soon have in Texas thirty-two 
thousand soldiers, and added : — 

" To support a larger number of men in Texas will be very expensive, 
and I think, on due reflection, that the order for the Fourth Corps had bet- 
ter be countermanded, unless our affairs are liable to become complicated 
with the imperial government of Mexico. I do not know whether this may 
occur or not. My own opinion is, and has been, that Maximilian should 
leave that country, and that his establishment there was a part of the rebel- 
lion. My doubt as to the intention of the Government leads me to ask of 
the Lieutenant-General the decision as to whether the Fourth Corps will be 
sent or not." 

Washington, June fifteenth — Rawlins to Sheridan — Telegram. 

" The Fourth Corps is under orders for Texas, and the orders will not be 
revoked" 



18G5.] Grant's Letter to the President. 507 

June fifteenth — Grant to Sheridan — Telegram. 
''Demand of the commander of French forces at Matamoras the delivery 
to an officer of the Government of the United States, the return of all arms 
and other munitions of war taken to Matamoras by the rebels, or obtained 
from them since the date of the surrender of Kirby Smith. You need not 
proceed to hostilities to obtain them, but report the reply received for fur- 
ther instructions. 11 

June nineteenth — Grant to Stanton. 

" Inclosed I send you a letter addressed to the President, on the subject 
of Mexican affairs, which I respectfully request to be laid before him. 

" The statement that French troops have fired upon our troops, in aid of 
the rebellion, is taken from a published letter from a member of an Indiana 
regiment. The statement of the sale of arms to French troops is from Gen- 
eral Steele's dispatch of the tenth of June. 

"My time is so occupied that I have not been able to draw up the in- 
closed letter with the care and pains to get at the exact facts, that I would 
like. The object, however, is to get this matter before the President and 
Cabinet in such a manner as to induce them to give the matter that study 
and attention its importance requires. This done, I shall feel confident that 
a course will be pursued, creditable to the country and people, to secure our 
rights on this continent." 

The following is the Lieutenant- General' s entire letter to 
the President — a striking example of his compact, forcible, 
luminous style : — 

" The great interest which I feel in securing an honorable and perma- 
nent peace, whilst we still have in service a force sufficient to insure it, and 
the danger and disgrace which, in my judgment, threaten us, unless positive 
and early measures are taken to avert it, induces me to lay my views before 
you in an official form. 

" In the first place, I regard the act of attempting to establish a monarchical 
government on this continent in Mexico, by foreign bayonets, as an act of 
hostility against the Government of the United States. If allowed to go on 
until such a government is established, I see nothing before us but a long, 
expensive, and bloody war; one in which the enemies of this country will 
be joined by tens of thousands of disciplined soldiers, embittered against 
their government by the experience of the last four years. 

"As a justification for open resistance to the establishment of Maximil- 
ian's government in Mexico, I would give the following reasons:— 

" First.— The act of attempting to establish a monarchy on this continent 
was an act of known hostility to the Government of the United States; was 
protested against at the time, and would not have been undertaken but for 
the great war which was raging, and which it was supposed by all the great 



508 His Hostility to the Fbench Invasion. [ ] 

powers of Europe, except, possibly, Russia, would result in the dismember- 
ment of the country, and the overthrow of republican institution-. 

"Second. — Every act of the empire of Maximilian has been hostile to the 
Government of the United States. Mataraoras, and the whole Bio Grande, 
under his control, has been an open port to those in rebellion against this 
Government. It is notorious that every article held by the rebel- for export 
was permitted to cross the Rio Grande, and from there go unmolested to all 
parts of the world, and they in return to receive in pay all articles, arms, 
munitions of war, &c, they desired. Rebels in arms have been allowed to 
take refuge on Mexican soil, protected by French bayonets. French soldiers 
have fired on our men from the south side of the river, in aid of the rebel- 
lion. Officers, acting under the authority of the would-be empire, have re- 
ceived arms, munitions, and other public property from the rebels, alter the 
same had become the property of the United States. It is now reported, 
and I think there is no doubt of the truth of the report, that large organized 
and armed bodies of rebels have gone to Mexico to join the imperialists. It 
is further reported, and too late we will find the report continued, that a 
contract or agreement has been entered into with Dr. Gwinn, a traitor to 
his country, to invite into Mexico armed immigrants, for the purpose of 
wrenching from the rightful government of that country, State- never con- 
trolled by the imperialists. It will not do to remain quiet, and theorize that 
by showing a strict neutrality all foreign force will be compelled to leave 
Mexican soil. Rebel immigrants to Mexico will go with arms in their hands. 
They will not be a burden upon the States, but, on the contrary, will become 
producers, always ready, when emergency arises, to take up their arms in 
defense of the cause they espouse. That their leaders will espouse the cause 
of the empire, purely out of hostility to this Government, I feel there is no 
doubt. There is a hope that the rank and file may take the opposite side, 
if any influence is allowed to work upon their reason. But if a neutrality is 
to be observed which allows armed rebels to go to Mexico, and which keeps 
out all other immigrants, and which also denies to the liberals of Mexico 
belligerent rights, 'the right to buy arms and munitions in foreign markets 
and to transport them through friendly territory to their homes, I see no 
chance for such influence to be brought to bear. 

" What I would propose would be a solemn protest against the establish- 
ment of a monarchical government in Mexico by the aid of foreign bayonets. 
If the French have a just claim against Mexico, I would regard them as hav- 
ing triumphed, and would guarantee them suitable award for their grievances. 
Mexico would no doubt admit their claim, if it did not affect their territory 
or rights as a free people. 

" The United States could take such pledges as would secure her against 
loss. How all this could be done without bringing on an armed conflict, 
others who have studied such matters could tell better than I. 

" If this course can not be agreed upon, then I would recognize equal 
belligerent rights to both parties. I would interpose no obstacle to the 



1865.] SlIERIDAN LONGS TO CROSS THE ElO GRANDE. 509 

passage into Mexico of emigrants to that country. I would allow either 
party to buy arms, or any thing we have to sell, and interpose no obstacle to 
their transit. 

"These views have been hastily drawn up, and contain but little of what 
might be said on the subject treated of. If, however, they serve to bring 
the matter under discussion, they will have accomplished all that is de- 
sired." 

Sheridan's subsequent dispatches from New Orleans 
show his healthy state of mind on this question, and also 
how narrowly the country escaped a foreign war. On the 
twenty -ninth of June, writing the chief-of- staff at Washing- 
ton that he had collected ' ' two of the handsomest columns 
of cavalry that have Tbeen organized during the war," he 
concluded : — 

"I have had many difficulties and delays in getting these cavalry columns 
together and in their magnificent trim, but I am now out of the woods, and 
only hope that I may have the pleasure of crossing the Rio Grande with 
them, with our faces turned toward the city of Mexico. 

"There is no use to beat around the bush in this Mexican matter. We 
should give a permanent government to that republic ; our work in crushing 
the rebellion will not be done until this takes place. The advent of Maxi- 
milian was a portion of the rebellion, and his fall should belong to its history. 
*'■♦** Most of the Mexican soldiers of Maximilian's army would throw 
down their arms the moment we crossed the Rio Grande. 

" The French influence has governed by their impudence." 

July first. — Sheridan to Grant. — Telegram. 

" General Steele has been directed to make a demand for the steamer 
Lucy Given on the French authorities, and, if not given up, to get her the 
best way he can. As soon as Generals Merritt and Ouster get to the Rio 
Grande the other public property will be taken wherever found. The ras- 
cality of the Rio Grande frontier is beyond solution, on intermediate grounds, 
where there is no government and a questionable protectorate. It is due to 
the history of our country that this portion of the late rebellion should be 
crushed out in a manly way, and with the power of a great nation as a 
contrast to this French subterfuge to assist in the attempt to ruin our 
country." 

July fourteenth. — Sheridan to Grant. — Telegram. 

" General Steele notified me yesterday evening that Maximilian has di- 
rected Mejia to give up the battery of artillery, ammunition, wagons, animals, 
and ammunition, and that it would be turned over on the ninth of this month. 



510 Anotiier strong Letter from Grant. D 8G5 - 

" There is a stampede on the part of tlie Franco-Mexicans. Camargo lias 
been evacuated. The garrison marched down to Matamoras with large cotton 
trains. This cotton is United States cotton, stolen under the auspices of the 
French commandant. General Steele notifies me that the command of Gene- 
ral Shelby which escorted the cotton agent of Texas, Governors M u rrah, Clark, 
and Allen, Generals Smith, Magruder, and others, had with it three pieces 
of artillery, forty wagon-loads of Enfield rifles, and a large wagon train, lie 
has some doubt of the correctness of this report, but I do not doubt it but 
very little myself. Cortinas has made application for his artillery, which is at 
Brownsville (three pieces), and I have directed it to be quietly turned over 
to him. This was the understanding when it was left at Brownsville. Gen- 
eral Steele also notifies me that they are nearly starved out in Matamoras." 

Galena, Illinois, September first. — Grant to the President. 
"Seven weeks' absence from Washington, and l'ree intercourse with all par- 
ties and classes of people, has convinced me that there is but one opinion as 
to the duty of the United States toward Mexico, or rather the usurpers in 
that country. All agree, that besides a yielding of the long -pro claimed 
Monroe doctrine, non-intervention in Mexican affairs will lead to an expen- 
sive and bloody war hereafter or a yielding of territory now possessed by us. 
To let the empire of Maximilian be established on our frontier, is to permit 
an enemy to establish himself who will require a large standing army to 
watch. Military stations will be at points remote from supplies, and there- 
fore expensive to keep. The trade of an empire will be lost to our com- 
merce, and Americans, instead of being the most favored people of the 
world throughout the length and breadth of this continent, will be scotfed 
and laughed at by their adjoining neighbors, both north and south— the 
people of the British provinces and of Mexico. 

"Previous communications have given my views on our duty in the mat- 
ter here spoken of, so that it is not necessary that I should treat the subject 
at any length'now. Conversations with you have convinced me that you 
think about it as I do; otherwise I should never have taken the liberty of 
writing in this manner. I have had the opportunity of mingling more inti- 
mately with all classes of community than the Executive can possibly have, 
and my object is to give you the benefit of what I have heard expressed. 

" I would have no hesitation in recommending that notice be given the 
French that foreign troops must be withdrawn from the continent, and the 
people left free to govern themselves in their own way. I would openly sell 
on credit to the government of Mexico, all the ammunition and clothing 
they want, and aid them with officers to command troops. In fine, I would 
take such measures as would secure the supremacy of republican govern- 
ment in Mexico. 

" I hope you will excuse me for the free manner in which I address you. 
I but speak my honest convictions, and then with the full belief that a terri- 
ble strife in this country is to be averted by prompt action in this matter 
with Mexico." 



1865.] "Where none can follow you." 511 



CHAPTER XLIII. 



LAURELED. 



In June a grand fair began in Chicago for the benefit of 
of disabled soldiers and their families. During the previ- 
ous February Mesdames Livermore and Hoge, leaders in 
the movement, begged President Lincoln to be present, that 
he might help kindle enthusiasm, let his old Illinois friends 
see him, and get a little rest. 

" Rest !" he replied with a smile ; u go to a fair to rest! 
I did that once at Philadelphia. Crowds were at every 
station all expecting a speech, and then cheering until we 
were out of hearing. I could not refuse to speak to the 
people, they were so loyal, and I knew it was because I 
represented the country for which they had suffered so 
much and so willingly that they wished to see and to hear 
me. When we got to the fair, our promised haven of rest, 
it was worse than ever. And oh, oh ! the shaking of 
hands ! I came home pleased and gratified, but worn out 
worse than before I went." 

The ladies answered that he would find even greater en- 
thusiasm in Chicago, but added : — 

" We will put you on a steamer upon the border of the 
lake, where the people can look at you but can't touch yon. 
Your hands shall be protected, and then we will send yon 
to a quiet place of rest where none can follow you^ You 
shall go to Mackinaw, that invigorating and lovely island, 
and none shall be permitted to trouble you." 

Lincoln (rubbing his hands and laughing like a child).— 
"That's capital ; that will do !" 

Long before the fair began he was borne through Chicago, 
where the people " could look at him, but could not touch 
him," to that quiet place where none can follow. 

A promise to be present for a day or two had been 



512 Grant at tiie Chicago Fair. [isgs. 

extorted from Gfrant. Mrs. Sherman asking him to contrib- 
ute something, he placed at her disposal " Old Jack," the 
cream-colored horse which he rode from the beginning of 
the war until after Chattanooga. Old Jack was a hero at the 
fair, and finally fell into the hands of a Chicago patriot, being • 
raffled off for a thousand dollars. His fate was better than 
that of Washington's favorite white charger, sold by his 
master whom he had carried safely through the war for 
independence. The proceeds from Old Jack went to the 
widows and orphans of the soldiers ; the pay for the Revo- 
lutionary charger into the private pocket of his master. 

Reaching Chicago, Grant found a countless multitude 
waiting at the station, with Old Jack ready saddled and 
bridled. The people insisted that the General should ride 
him through the streets. He had no spurs, and the hard- 
ened steed was impervious to the whip, but he jogged along, 
the throng rending the heavens with their cheers, while a 
hundred guns gave thundering welcome. 

At Union Hall, as Grant entered, the shouts of ten 
thousand people drowned the "Red, White, and Blue" 
from the band. When he stepped upon the platform they 
were renewed ; and among the booths through all that vast 
space, ladies were waving their handkerchiefs and men 
swinging and flinging up their hats. Hooker presided, and 
introduced the General, who said : — 

' ' Ladies and Gentlemen : As I never made a speech 
myself, I will ask Governor Yates to return the thanks 
which I should fail to express." 

Yates did so, in fervid, ringing words. Sherman, next 
called for, merely replied : — 

"I am here to-day to listen. I am not going to make 
any speech whatever. Always ready, always willing, al- 
ways proud to do any thing the Lieutenant-General asked 
me to do, I know he never asked me to make a speech." 
(Cheers and laughter.) 

Grant. — " No, I never asked a soldier to do any thing 
I could not do myself." (Great applause.) 

After the cheers subsided, the immense audience sang 
" Rally round the Flag, boys," and then called for Mrs. 



1865.] He visits New England am» Cajtada. 

Grant and Mrs. Sherman, who stepped forward on the plal 
form and received the same hearty welcome. 

The fair excited great interest throughout the Northw< 
Its proceeds exceeded a quarter of a million of dollai 

One of its curiosities was the revolver which Jefferson I >a- 
had in his hand when captured — a relic that the Boldii 
garded with grim smiles. Another was the historic eagle 
of the Eighth Wisconsin Infantry, avI Tie h, haying bui 
the perils of the war, is maintained at the public expense in 
the State-House yard at Madison. Fifteen thousand dol- 
lars' worth of his photographs were sold. A third was I 
characteristic letter from Abraham Lincoln to a St. !. 
lady, in reply to a request for his autograph. It ran : — 

"Fondly do we hope, fervently do we pray, that this mighl 

war may speedily pass away. Yet, if it should bo God's will that r 
continue until all the wealth piled up by the bondman's two hand 

fifty years of unrequited labor shall be sunk, and every drop of ' 
by the lash shall be paid by another drawn by the sword, ai 
thousand years ago so still it must be said, 'the judgment- 
true and righteous altogether.' " 

Grant returned to Washington. In July he wenl I • 
Saratoga, and from there to Boston, which he had not Been 
for thirteen years. He passed a quiet Sunday, attend- 
ing worship at the Old South Church of Revolutions 
memory. On Monday a grand reception was given bin 
Faneuil Hall. He visited Harvard University, which, as in 
duty bound, had already conferred upon him the honorary 
degree of doctor of laws. At Lowell he spenl several h< 
in the largest factory in America, which employs two th 
sand workmen and workwomen. He was much in! 
in the large library ; the pleasantness of the long, well 1 
tilated rooms; the tasteful dress and cheerful looks 
girls; and, above all, the curious, intricate machinery, 
ticularly that for cutting dies and that for printing 

He tarried a few days in Maine, and then making 
through Canada, started for his old home on the npj 
Mississippi. Everywhere crowds gathered to m< urn, 
and as he neared Galena the enthusiasm was onboun 
When the train arrived there, cannons were booming, bw 



ii 



514 " Captain Grant" returns to Galena. t 18 ^- 

playing, flags flying, and thousands of human throats lustily 
cheering. Among other stanch friends who greeted him, 
was H. H. Houghton, of the Galena Gazette, the oldest edi- 
tor in Illinois, the first to commend Grant at the outset of 
the war, and the truest through all his days of trial. 

An arch spanned one street bearing the inscription 
wreathed with flowers, "General, the sidewalk is built." 
The people had presented to him a completely furnished 
house, — costing sixteen thousand dollars— first building a 
new sidewalk half a mile to the station. 

At the De Soto House, from which streamed two hundred 
flags, a triumphal arch overspread the main street. One 
side was inscribed : — 

" WELCOME TO OUK CITIZEN. 

Weldon Railroad, Fair Oaks, 

Wilderness, Petersburg, 

Richmond, Five Forks." 

The other bore the words : — 

"HAIL TO THE CHIEF WHO IN TEIUMPn ADVANCES. 

Belmont, Lookout Mountain, 

Donelson, Chattanooga, 

Shiloh, Vicksburg, 

Corinth, Appomattox Court-House." 

Through the surging crowd Grant was escorted past the 
old leather store, and under the arch, from which thirty- 
six young girls, each bearing the national colors and repre- 
senting a State of the Union, showered him with bouquets. 
From a platform near it, a speech of welcome was fitly 
made by Washburn e. The Reverend J. H. Vincent replied 
for the Lieutenant-General, thanking his old neighbors, and 
saying that the duties of his official position compelled him, 
as long as he held it, to remain in Washington ; but that he 
regarded Galena as his home, and, please God, should be 
there as much and as often as possible. 

The formal welcome oyer, he and his family were driven 
to the new home. Our views of it and the other houses upon 
the same page are all from photographs. In front of the 
Washington residence (purchased by the General), the 
photographer caught his carriage horses also. The picture 




RETURNING TO GALENA, 1865. 



1865 -1 The Little White Pacer. 515 

of the Galena reception is likewise from a photograph, and 
minutely accurate. 

After remaining in Galena until September, and visiting 
St. Louis, he went to his native State. Ohio was justly 
proud of her glorious war record, and her long list of illus- 
trious sons. She had furnished the Government three hun- 
dred and ten thousand soldiers — on several calls, more than 
were asked of her. She had supplied more than all other 
States combined, of our leading generals — Grant, Sheridan, 
Sherman, McPherson, Rosecrans, Buell, McDowell, 0. M. 
Mitchel, Schenck, Garfield, Custer, Gilmore, Granger, Stan- 
ley, the three McCooks, and a host of lesser lights — bcsi<h> 
Chase, Secretarv of the Treasury, and Stanton, Secretary of 
War. 

Grant visited the scenes of his boyhood in Batavia. 
Bethel, Georgetown, and Ripley, strolling about the old 
tan-yard, looking at the house where his father and mother 
were married, and receiving the public and private attentions 
of his old neighbors with the modesty and simplicity of his 
early years. He reached Washington again about the first 
of October. 

Though keeping fourteen horses, he had not lost his na- 
tive susceptibility to equine attractions. One day, riding fr< >ni 
his office to dinner, he noticed a homely little white ste< I 
in a cart, pacing so fast that it was quickly out of sight. 
All he observed was, that it was driven by a boy without a 
coat. The diminutive animal so captivated him, that he 
talked of it continually, until some friends ascertained that 
it was the property of a butcher, who had bought it for 
enty-five dollars. The man of blood, learning who wan 
it, resisted all pecuniary blandishments until they reached 
three hundred dollars. The General purchased the w! 
pacer, named it " Butcher-boy," and may still be Been 
morning whirling along behind it on the way to his office. 

A citizen of Connecticut visiting Washington, wrote h< 
this account of an accidental interview : — 

"Wanting to know where ray father was buried, I went to tin' nl 
old Stanton Hospital and found it torn down. Grossing the aire 
brick block of three houses, I stepped up to a plain-looking man, and 



516 The General's Southern Tour. [ 1S ^5. 

— ' Who lives in that end of the block V ' Mrs. Wallace.' ' Who lives in the 
middle house?' 'It is an orphan asylum.' 'Who lives in this?' 'General 
Grant.' ' Whew ! whew ! I wonder if I could get a chance to see him.' 
'/ am General Grant.' We shook hands, and he talked with me a lew 
minutes, very pleasantly and familiarly. lie was in citizen's clothes, with 
his hands in his pockets ; his face was open and bright.' 

On the twenty- seventh of November the General started 
through the South, via Raleigh, Charleston, Savannah, and 
Augusta, scrutinizing the military forces, and the Freedmen' s 
Bureau, and mingling freely with all classes of citizens. After 
his return, at the President's request, he made a report : — 

" I am satisfied that the mass of thinking men of the South accept the 
present situation of affairs in good faith. The questions which have hitherto 
divided the sentiments of the people of the two sections — slavery and State 
rights, or the right of a State to secede from the Union — they regard as hav- 
ing been settled forever by the highest tribunal — arms — that man can resort 
to. I was pleased to learn from the leading men whom I met, that they not 
only accepted the decision arrived at as final, but, now that the smoke of 
battle has cleared away, and time has been given for reflection, that this de- 
cision has been a fortunate one for the whole country, they receiving the like 
benefits from it with those who opposed them in the field and in the council. 

* * * "I did not meet any one — either those holding places under the 
Government or citizens of Southern States — who thought it practicable to 
withdraw the military from the South at present. The white and black mu- 
tually require the protection of the General Government. 

"There is such universal acquiescence in the authority of the General 
Government throughout the portions of the country visited by me, that the 
mere presence of a military force, without regard to numbers, is sufficient to 
maintain order. The good of the country requires that a force be kept in 
the interior, where there are many freedmen. Elsewhere in the Southern 
States than at ports upon the seacoast, no force is necessary. 

"The soldiers should all be white troops. The reasons for this are obvi- 
ous. Without mentioning many of them, the presence of black troops, lately 
slaves, demoralizes labor, both by their advice and furnishing in their camps 
a resort for the freedmen for long distances around. White troops generally 
excite no opposition, and, therefore, a smaller number of them can maintain 
order in a given district. 

" Colored troops must be kept in bodies sufficient to defend themselves. 
It is not the thinking man who would do violence toward any class of troops 
sent among them by the General Government, but the ignorant in some 
places might ; and the late slave, too, who might be imbued with the idea 
that the property of his late master should by right belong to him, at least 
should have no protection from the colored soldier. 

* * * « My observations lead me to the conclusion that the citizens 



1865.] His Report to the President. 517 

of the Southern States are anxious to return to self-government within the 
Union as soon as possible ; that while reconstructing they want and require 
protection from the Government; that they are in earnest in wishing to do 
what they think is required by the Government, not humiliating to them as 
citizens, and that if such a course was pointed out they would pursue it in 
good faith. It is to be regretted that there can not be a greater com- 
mingling at this time between the citizens of the two sections, and particu- 
larly with those intrusted with the law-making power. 

"I did not give the operation of the Freedmen's Bureau that attention 
I would have done if more time had been at my disposal. Conversations, 
however, on the subject, with officers connected with the bureau, led me to 
think that in some of the States its affairs have not been conducted with good 
judgment or economy, and that the belief, widely spread among the freed- 
men of the Southern States, that the lands of their former owners will, at 
least in part, be divided among them, has come from agents of the bureau. 
* * * In some form the Freedmen's Bureau is an absolute necessity until 
the civil law is established and enforced, securing to freedmen their rights 
and full protection. * * * Everywhere General Howard, the able head 
of the bureau, has made friends by the just and fair instructions and advice 
he gave. * * * The effect of the belief in the distribution of the lands 
is idleness and accumulation in camps, towns, and cities." 

The report concluded by recommending that the bureau 
should no longer be independent of the military establish- 
ment of the country ; but that, to secure economy, obedience 
to General Howard's instructions, and uniformity of action, 
every officer on duty in the Southern States should be re- 
garded as its agent, and all orders from its head be sent 
through department commanders. 

Those Northerners who were inclined to believe af- 
fairs going on as badly as possible in the South, were not 
pleased with the report ; and Senator Sumner said of the 
Executive communication which embraced it and was based 
upon it :— " We have a message from the President, which 
is like the whitewashing message of Franklin Pierce with 1 < - 
gard to the enormities in Kansas." The truth was, that the 
late rebels were then tractable, and quite ready to accept 
whatever terms the Government might offer. Afterward, 
encouraged by the defection of Andrew Johnson from the 
republican party which elected him, they adopted a haugh- 
tier tone. 

The Mexican question assumed more interest than ever.. 



518 The Mexican Question again. [1865. 

The emigration movement was revived, its design being to 
throw in a heavy force to sustain and ultimately to con- 
trol the imperial (Maximilian) government. Counteracting 
schemes were also formed to throw in Northern emigrants 
in the interest of the liberal (Juarez) party. Owing to the 
distance and expense, however, few emigrants went. Most 
of those starting from the South were stopped by Sheridan, 
whose feeling was so intense, that if the old order, "Go 
in," had been repeated, he would have obeyed with quite 
as much alacrity as he did at Winchester. 

November fifth. — Sheridan to Grant. 

* * * * " What I have written in reference to the feeling in Mexico 
against Maximilian is correct; nine and one half tenths of the people are 
against him. He can not collect taxes; and what money lie gets in Mexico 
is from forced contributions on the merchants of the towns he happens to 
hold, and these towns may be considered in a state of siege, all communi- 
cation with them being interrupted or entirely cut off by the Liberals. 
Substantially he has no government and no party to support him. 

*ir ■!* S|E *p *n *l" * 

"I sometimes think there is still an understanding between the rebel- 
lious of the Southern States and Louis Napoleon. That such understanding 
did exist before the surrender of Lee there is no doubt. 

u The contest in this country for the last four years was the old contest 
between Absolutism and Liberalism, and Louis Napoleon saw it and acted 
on it, but waited too long. Had he anticipated the rapidity with which the 
bottom fell out of the rebellion, we would have had much work on our 
hands ; therefore, let us not imitate his example, and wait too long in this 
Mexican affair, lest we make a mistake." 

December fifteenth. — Sheridan to Grant. — Telegram. 

" Brigadier-General W. T. Clarke, accompanied by Colonel Mejia, of the 
liberal army, has just arrived from the Rio Grande. They report as fol- 
lows : — General Mejia made a proposition to General Weitzel to turn over 
Matamoras for the sum of two hundred thousand dollars, and a guaranty 
of protection to the city when occupied by the Liberal forces. This money 
was about to be raised, and the city turned over to Colonel Mejia, of the 
Liberal army, but it appears that General H. Clay Crawford arrived, and, 
learning the condition of things, offered General Mejia a greater sum, and 
broke off the whole affair, and has put things in a regular muss. He then 
started for. General Escobedo's camp, but couriers from Colonel Mejia at 
Brownsville preceded him to warn General Escobedo to have nothing to do 
with him. I think that General Mejia will give up Matamoras if the thing is 



1365.] Grant's Instructions to Sheridan. 519 

well managed, and General Clarke and Colonel Mejia say that G-eneral Mejia 
is only waiting their return from New Orleans. 

" The presence of Crawford, and his assertions that he is acting under 
the authority of President Johnson, embarrasses me much. Can you give 
me any instructions ? I think it best to make a short trip over to the Rio 
Grande, if you do not object. Two hundred and eighty Austrians have ar- 
rived at Matamoras ; that is all. Please answer quickly." 

December sixteenth. — Grant to Sheridan. — Telegram. 

" I will see the President, and give you a full answer to your dispatch 
relating to affairs on the Rio Grande as soon as I can." 

December nineteenth. — Grant to Sheridan. 

" Dear General : — After my dispatch to you of the sixteenth instant, I 
saw the President, and showed him yours to which mine was an answer. I 
can say this after consultation : The President, as well as the whole country, 
is interested in the liberal cause in Mexico. It can not, the way relations now 
stand, be given as a direct order that commanders shall take part either in 
battles, or in agreements between belligerents, as to what protection or 
guaranty the Government will give to either in any case. But there is no 
extradition treaties existing between the United States and any other govern- 
ment which requires the giving up of belligerents to their enemies. 

" Officers of the army on the Rio Grande should, officially, be neutral in 
the same sense that belligerents on the other side of the river have been 
when we were in trouble. Their sympathies are their own, and they alone 
are responsible for them. 

" Many rebels are supposed to have crossed the Rio Grande to join their 
fortunes with those of the empire. It can not be expected of us that we will 
keep up a police force on that river to prevent persons, who may possibly 
take up the opposite side, from crossing. 

" I think a visit from you to the Rio Grande at this time will do good. 
If you go, let me hear from you, on your return, the situation. 

" It is not improbable that Congress will, before the end of the session, 
take decided measures on our affairs in Mexico, and demand the withdrawal 
of all foreign troops from her soil. I hope so, at least." 

December twenty -eighth.—Sheridan to Rawlins, Chief -of -Staff. 

« On the twenty-sixth of November I telegraphed to the Lieutenant-Gcn- 
eral about the emigration scheme of Louis Napoleon in Mexico, at the head 
of which was Captain Maury, Sterling Price, and General John B. Magruder; 
that I had the commissioner for the State of Louisiana, and that I would 
forward his commission, which was then en route to him. 

" I have since received said commission, and respectfully forward it with 
accompanying papers for the information of the Government. 



520 "Tins Rebel Emigration Scheme." t 1 * 06 - 

" I have notified Mr. Dennis, the commissioner, that I will not permit him 
to act under this commission, and respectfully request an approval or disap- 
proval of this action, as I feel convinced that I may at any time be subjected 
to the test of practically preventing emigrants from going to the valley of 
Mexico in the interests of a power not friendly to our country." 

January tenth, 1866. — Bowers to Slieridan. 

" I am directed by Lieutenant-General Grant to acknowledge the receipt 
of your communication of date December twenty-eighth, 1865, in relation 
to the Franco-Mexican Emigration scheme, and to say to you in reply that 
your orders in this matter meet his approval, and that you are authorized 
and directed to execute your suggestions respecting emigrants by force of 
arms if necessary." 

February seventh. — Sheridan to Grant. 

" As I had anticipated in my communication of December twenty-eighth 
to you, on the subject of emigration to the Valley of Mexico, I am now 
called upon to practically put a stop to it. I find throughout most of the 
Southern States an intention on the part of a large class, to go to the valley 
of Mexico. Some have already arrived at New Orleans, and I hear of a 
great deal of excitement throughout the South on the subject. 

" Under your letter of January tenth I have stopped those who have 
already arrived here. They are all very bitter against the Government, and 
say that they will not live under our flag, &c. Unless the Government is 
firm in this question, there will be a large party to back Maximilian in 
Mexico in the course of a year from this time, and if the scheme is not broken 
up, every act of our Government which is distasteful to these people, will 
cause a fresh exodus to Mexico. 

" This rebel emigration scheme looks to me as if it was conceived by Louis 
Napoleon. 

" Only at few days ago I received a letter from the city of Mexico, stating 
the hostility of all classes to Maximilian, and their sympathy with the 
people from the United States." 



1866.] The Richmond "Examiner" Suppressed. 521 



CHAPTER XLIV. 



MY POLICY. 



The Richmond Examiner, one of the ablest and "bitterest 
journals in the South, published a number of editorials 
utterly inadmissible in a region under military rule. It was 
accordingly suppressed, and under the Lieu tenant-General's 
directions this order was issued* to department military 
commanders in the South : — 

" You will please send to these head-quarters (as soon as practicable, and 
from time to time thereafter) such copies of newspapers published in your 
department as contain sentiments of disloyalty and hostility to the Govern- 
ment in any of its branches, and state whether such paper is habitual in its 
utterances of such sentiments. The persistent publication of articles cal- 
culated to keep up hostility of feeling between the people of different 
sections of the country can not be tolerated. This information is called for 
with a view to their suppression, which will be done from these head- 
quarters only." 

The editor of the Examiner asked that the disability 
might be removed from his paper. Grant indorsed the 
petition : — 

"The course of the Examiner, in every number which I have seen, has 
been such as to foster and increase the ill-feeling toward the Government of 
the United States by the discontented portion of the Southern people. I 
believe it to be for the best interests of the whole people, North and South, 
to suppress such utterances whenever the power exists to do so. The power 
certainly does exist when martial law prevails, and will be exercised. Re- 
luctant as I was to pursue this course, I have felt it my duty to pursue 
it in this instance; and, as much as I dislike to interfere with the interest 
of individuals, I would deem it improper and mischievous in tendency to 
revoke the order for the suppression of the Richmond Examiner at tins 
time.'" 

But the editor induced President Johnson to annul it, 
upon the promise that the paper should " support the Union, 

* February seventeenth. 



522 Johnson removes the Disability. t 1866 - 

the Constitution and laws, and the 'policy of your adminis- 
tration" Of the Lieutenant-General he wrote : — 

" He said to me expressly that, if he had the authority, he would that day 
suppress the New York News, the Cincinnati Enquirer, and the Chicago 
Times, adding that the 'Copperhead papers of the North,' as he designated 
them, were doing quite as much harm as the papers in the South. Deriv- 
ing no satisfaction from him, I was forced to appeal to the President, giving 
him the pledge contained in the letter above. It was written during my last 
interview with the President, and in his own office." 

The military supervision of newspapers in the late insur- 
gent districts, however, proving impracticable, Grant soon 
revoked the order requiring it. 

After taking up his residence in Washington, he one day 
handed to young Bowers, of his staff, the key of a tastefully 
furnished room, saying : — 

"Joe, I want you to consider this yours. Don't feel 
obliged to become one of the family unless you choose ; but 
the room will always be kept for you, and there will always 
be a plate for you at the table." 

The aide, greatly touched by this kindness, lived at the 
house from that time. Early in March the General, solicitous 
for the health of Bowers, who was working very hard, 
took him on a visit to West Point. As they started home, 
Bowers, attempting to spring upon the train after it was in 
motion, fell between two cars and was killed. His modesty, 
efficiency, and worth had won greatly upon his chief, who 
was deeply afflicted by his loss. 

The House of Representatives reported a bill reviving 
the grade of " General of the Army of the United States" 
— never held by any American except Washington, and now 
intended, not as a permanent rank, but only for Grant, its 
terms providing : — 

" Whenever any general shall have been appointed and commissioned 
under the provisions of this act, if thereafter the office shall become vacant, 
this act shall thereupon exjrir^and remain no longer in force" 

It called out a good deal of rambling discussion. Henry 
C. Deming, of the military committee, elaborately advocated 
the measure. He explained that under it the whole yearly 



* 



1865.] The "G-enekal" Bill it* Congkess. 523 

pay of the appointee would amount to seventeen thousand 
six hundred and forty dollars. The proper command of a 
brigadier-general was a brigade ; of a major-general a 
division ; of a lieutenant-general a corps ; and of a general 
an army. Almost every civilized nation had a marshal or 
a general at the head of its military organization. Prussia, 
had thirty-four generals, and two field marshals ; Austria, 
forty-two generals and three field marshals ; England, 
sixty-eight generals and Hve field marshals ; and France, 
eleven field marshals. 

In his stroll down the broad aisle of history, Deming 
paused to glance at Sesostris, Rameses, the Pharaohs, 
Miltiades, Themistocles, Aristides, Epaminondas, Csesar, 
Hannibal, and Charlemagne.* England, he said, gave to 
Marlborough five hundred thousand pounds, a stately 
palace and a dukedom ; and to Wellington over nine hun- 
dred thousand pounds exclusive of his salaries. On the 
evening of receiving the news of Waterloo, parliament 
voted him one hundred thousand pounds and an annuity 
of two thousand. The orator pronounced Grant' s labors in 
the bayous, creeks, rivers, and canals about Vicksburg : — 

" Without parallel in resistance to natural obstacles, unless the parallel 
is found in the memorable expedition of Xerxes into the Peloponnesus, which 
channeled Mount Athos and bridged the Hellespont. * * * Did he not 
push his transports through an iron hail compared with which the full blast 
of Gibraltar or Cherbourg would be comparatively harmless V 

All the substance of the speech was good sense and pro- 
priety ; through all its language, the national ' ' eloquence ' : 
rioted in illustrious exuberance. It closed : — 

" Time, it is said, devours the proudest human memorial. The impress 
we have made as a nation may be obliterated; our grandest achievements, 
even those which we now fondly deem eternal, those which embellish the 
walls of that historic rotunda, may all drop from the memory of man ; 
our civilization, liberty, arts, agriculture, though sculptured in the pediments 
of this capitol, may all be ingulfed in Lethe's dark waters; this massive 
structure, with its solid foundations, expanded wings, towering columns, 
and bubbling dome may all be buried with our Constitution, Government, 
laws, and polity, in a common grave. Yet we shall not all perish. You may 

* Couplet, page 303. 



524 Grant Appointed to the Position. [ 1& cg. 

rest assured that three American names will survive oblivion, and soar to- 
gether immortal: the name of him icho founded, the name of him who dis- 
enthralled, with the name of him who saved the republic" 

After tributes to the^ General, from members of both par- 
ties, and one vehement protest against our emulating " the 
effete monarchies of Europe" in hero-worship, the bill 
passed, one hundred and sixteen to eleven. 

In the Senate the chief eulogist was Ex-Governor Yates, 
of Illinois, who had signed Grant's commission as colonel. 
Yates said : — 

"Lincoln wisely read the nation's will in committing to him the com- 
mand of all our armies, and particularly of the unlucky but heroic Army of 
the Potomac, which, baffled but not beaten, had stood for long years like a 
wall of fire against the assaults of treason. And here, again, victory followed 
the invincible Grant, and in a series of battles more bloody than Waterloo, 
more brilliant than Austerlitz, he displayed the sterling qualities of the 
great commander. * * * It was the two-handed sword of Coeur de 
Lion against the flashing cimeter of the Paladin ; it was the ax of the 
Norseman, thundering on the light shield of the Saxon, or the Celt." 

The Senate concurred nearly unanimously. Grant was 
appointed General, and Sherman promoted to the lieutenant- 
generalship, thus made vacant. 

Wonderfully had the chief been educated by the great 
school, to which his mind is so peculiarly adapted — 
the school of experience. Could the Grant of Fort Don- 
elson have won Vicksburg, or Chattanooga? Could the 
Grant who crossed the Rapidan on the fourth of May, 1864, 
have conducted the crowning campaign which ended at 
Appomattox Court-House, and which will stand forever a 
monument of military genius ? 

After he became Lieutenant- General, the Government 
never took any important steps even in civil matters, with- 
out first invoking his counsel. Men whose lives had been 
devoted to practical political science, were astonished to see 
how readily his quick intuitions, clear sense, and sagacious 
judgment of men, adapted themselves to civil affairs. He 
did not attempt to master the contents of books, but read 
carefully all the great New York journals. A friend 
asked : — 



1866.] Massacee of UNiotfTSTs in New Oeleans. 525 

' ' How can you % I only find time to glance at the summa- 
ry of news, to see that I have missed nothing important." 

Grant.— " I read the papers through, and then the sum- 
mary to make sure that I have overlooked nothing." 

He added, that at his time of life he could not "begin to 
devote himself much to books ; hence his anxiety to read 
all sides of every living question. Few men, indeed, are so 
minutely informed upon every current event. 

On the twenty-first of July, Sheridan, in a dispatch to 
the chief-of-staff, intimated his delight that the invaders of 
Mexico were coming to grief: — 

" I find it necessary to go over the Eio Grande frontier for six days. 
Since the surrender of Matamoras, there is the dicible to pay over in Mexico. 
The empress is on her way to Vera Cruz to leave the country, and there are 
general indications of a break-up or a stampede of the most alarming char- 
acter. Fears are entertained of the ability of the French troops to get out 
of the country." 

Meanwhile, most serious troubles arose in Sheridan's de- 
partment. The late rebels, encouraged by the recreancy of 
President Johnson, wreaked terrible revenges upon loyal 
men. A Union State Convention reassembled in New Or- 
leans* to change the Louisiana Constitution. Being certain 
to inaugurate negro suffrage, it was extremely obnoxious to 
the rebel element. John T. Munroe, mayor of the city, un- 
der a thin disguise encouraged violence. During the first 
morning of the convention, the march of a negro procession 
to its hall was made the pretext for an outbreak, in which 
the police and the citizens committed wholesale nrarders. 
A hundred persons were killed or wounded. Sheridan, on 
returning from Texas, dispatchedf to Grant : — 

"* * * It was no riot. It was an absolute massacre by the police, 
which was not excelled in murderous cruelty by that of Fort Pillow. It was 
murder, which the mayor and police of the city perpetrated without the 
shadow of necessity. Furthermore, I believe it was premeditated, and every 
indication points to this." 

The General replied the next day : — 

" Continue to enforce martial law so far as may be necessary to preserve 
* July thirtieth. t August second. 



526 The North Flames with Wrath. l l ^ G - 

the peace, and do not allow any of the civil authorities to act if you deem 
such action dangerous to the public safety. Lose no time in investigat- 
ing and reporting the causes that led to the riot and the facts which 
occurred." 

The North flamed with wrath. Hitherto republicans had 
regretted Andrew Johnson' s hostility to the reconstruction 
policy of Congress, but ' remembering his fidelity to the 
Union during the rebellion, regarded him with personal 
kindness. Now, his intemperate language, his intrusting 
of power to unrepentant rebels, and the insubordination he 
had fanned into this massacre, excited sternest indignation. 

Being invited to assist at the dedication of a monument 
to the memory of Stephen A. Douglas, near Chicago, John- 
son seemed to believe that by making the journey and de- 
fending his course orally to the people, he could regain his 
lost popularity. 

Grant, thus far, had given no public intimation whether 
his sympathies were with Congress or the President. Both 
sides claimed him ; both were impatient at his silence. But, 
wisely comprehending that he would set the worst possible 
example to military subordinates by mingling in the pas- 
sionate struggle of the hour, he refused to speak until speak- 
ing became an absolute duty. 

The army had just been reorganized. Officers, from 
colonels down to second lieutenants, were to be appointed 
for twenty-six regiments. The President, wishing to avail 
himself of the General' s popularity, had already asked him to 
join in the tour to Chicago. When Grant and Stanton selected 
the new list of officers, Johnson, though desiring to indicate 
several himself, graciously said : — 

" I have no objection to any of these men, but here are 
two appointments which I must make. Strike out any two 
names and insert these, and you shall have all the rest." 

The naming of the entire list rested with him, and this 
was far more liberal than Lincoln or any other President 
had ever been. Then taking Grant aside, he repeated the 
request for his company. Though fully aware of the 
design to claim that his political sympathies were with the 
Executive, the General would not refuse after this marked 



1866 J "Swinging 'hound the Circle." 527 

kindness* but participated in "swinging 'round the cir- 
cle."* 

Johnson, Grant, Farragut, Seward, Welles, Randall, 
Romero, minister from the Mexican Republic, Rawlins. 
and two senators left Washington on the twenty-eighth <>[' 
August, and were received by immense throngs along their 
route. New York gave them a formal reception in the 
City Hall and a grand banquet at Delmonico's, which cost 
the city one hundred dollars per plate. Johnson made long 
speeches defending " My policy" ; Grant and Farragut only 
bowed to the crowds which shouted for them. 

When the party visited the Central Park, the General 
asked his driver to let him take the reins, and then ban- 
tered the President for a race. Johnson accepted by 
proxy, leaving the ribbons with his Jehu, and the two 
teams ran for a mile, to the wonder of the spectators on 
the grounds. Grant finally left his competitor behind, 
and Johnson rose in his carriage and lifted his hat in recog- 
nition. The lively scene was peculiarly American. 

Stopping at West Point and Albany, the party reached 
Auburn, the home of Seward, on the evening of the thirty- 
first. In the throng at the station a little boy elbowed his 
way to shake hands with Grant, but afterward fell nnder 
awheel, which shattered his leg. The chiefs sympathies 
were so kindled that he drove with the Surgeon-General 
to the lad's home ; saw that he was properly cared for, and 
bade him write to him after recovering, as perhaps he might 
be of service. 

At each stopping place, Johnson, in stentorian voice and 
rounded periods, begged his hearers to pity the sorrows of 
a poor old man whose trembling political limbs had borne 
him to their door; and rehearsed his sacrifices and perils 
for the Union, always closing in substance or in langna 

"Take the flag, take the Constitution, take the I oion 
into your hands. In your hands they are safe." 

Soon after they passed Buffalo, Grant, thoroughly dis- 

* This expression, used by Johnson in one of his popular harangu 
the public ear, and for the next two years was a favorite bit of slang in American 
newspapers and conversation. 



528 Johnson's Violent Harangues. t 1866 - 

gusted at Ms gross vituperations of Congress and leading 
republicans, said to a friend : — 

"The President lias no business to be talking in this 
way. I wouldn't have started if I had expected any thing 
of the kind." 

Seward, seeking to identify the General with Johnson's 
opinions, said in one speech : "You see that Grant is with 
us." Grant was extremely indignant at this, and declared 
that no man had any right to define his political views. At 
Cleveland, Johnson denounced Wendell Philips, Thaddeus 
Stevens, and Charles Sumner by name as " traitors." The 
crowd hissed, hooted, and shouted, some applauding and 
the rest bandying epithets with the Chief Magistrate of 
the nation— a most humiliating exhibition. 

Between Detroit and Chicago, one local dignitary in his 
speech of welcome, converted Seiior Romero into "Senator 
Romeo," and General Rousseau into "Rosbrero." The 
President, in Ms address, declared that he should do his 
duty in spite of all " the vile whelps of sin." 

If Johnson emulated the noisy geese that gabbled o'er 
the pool, Grant and Farragut had all the spirits of the play- 
ful children just let loose from school. At Michigan City, 
while the speaking was going on, a number of blooming 
girls wandered up and down beside the train, in pursuit of 
the chief. He had taken refuge in the rear car, but Farra- 
gut shouted from a window :— 

" Here's General Grant. I know what you want ; you 
want to see him and to kiss him." 

The maidens made a rush, and each, lifted up to the 
window by her young man, gave the General that affec- 
tionate salute with which lovely woman has been wont to 
greet American heroes since the days of Harry Clay. The 
moment his mouth was unobstructed, Grant exclaimed :— 

" There's another man you want to see, one who deserves 
kissing a great deal more than I do—that's Admiral Far- 
ragut." 

Thereupon the old salt was subjected to the same gentle 
discipline, and seemed to relish it almost as well as he en- 
joyed the peppering he got from the enemy when, lashed in 



i 866 -] A Droll Suit for Libel. 

his maintop, lie silenced* the rebel forts "below New Orleans. 
Reaching Chicago, Johnson attempted to speak, but the 
crowd drowned his voice in shouts of "Bread and butter," 
and " Hurrahfor Moses !" — an intimation that the loaves and 
fishes of office animated his adherents, and a reminder of hia 
whilom promise to the negroes that he would be their Mot 
to lead them out of bondage. 

The corner stone of the monument was laid with due 
ceremony, and the party continued its journey to St. Louis. 
John Hogan, a garrulous Missouri democrat, of convivial 
proclivities, had taken the President in charge. One morn- 
ing the reporter of the Chicago Tribune wrote: — "Hogan 
was sober, it being very early in the day." 

For this mild imitation of Scripture,* Hogan actually 
brought suit against the paper for libel, but his damages 
were never visible save to the eye of faith. At Blooming* 
ton, Illinois, thousands of citizens cried down the President 
with : — "We don't want to hear traitors so near the home 
of Lincoln." At Springfield, the party visited the tomb of 
the nation' s martyr, in silence with uncovered heads. 

At St. Louis Johnson was even more violent than usual. 
He received an invitation to visit Memphis and New Or- 
leans, but the General refused to go, and he declined it. 

On the return, at Paris, Illinois, where the first company 
of Grant's regiment had been raised, the procession bore 
banners with the inscription : — 

"Welcome to U. S. Grant, Colonel of the Twenty-first Illinois Volunteer 
Infantry." 

Though everywhere received with the greatest enthu- 
siasm he seemed indifferent to it, and impatient of so much 
display. When crowds would not be refused he simply 
stepped upon the platform, took off his hat, nodded, and 1 1 
went straight back to his seat and resumed his cigar. .\i 
one Indiana town Hogan declared in introducing Johnson : 

" The President is a democrat— just such a regular ••ld- 
fashioned democrat as your citizen, Judge , who has 

just spoken." 

* "These are not drunken as ye suppose, seeing it is but the third hour of the 
day." — Acts, li. 15. 
KK 



530 " Prodigiously glad to get Home." [ 186 6- 

Grant, hearing it, said indignantly : — 

"This is a little too much. He was one of the worst 
'copperheads' during the war. I won't countenance, even 
by silence, the praise of any man who opposed us then." 

At Indianapolis a riot occurred. One citizen was killed, 
and six wounded. The General, exceedingly troubled, went 
on to Cincinnati, leaving the party to rejoin him at its 
pleasure. At Jeffersonville, Indiana, the President repelled 
the charge of treachery : — 

" Was he a traitor ? Then what was Thad. Stevens ? Was he, as he had 
been charged, a Judas Iscariot? There was no Judas without a Saviour. 
Was Thad. Stevens his Saviour?" 

At Cincinnati, the " Boys in Blue"— a political organi- 
zation — waited upon Grant, who was spending an evening 
at the theater. Their object being to reflect upon Johnson, 
he refused to see them, but said to their captain : — 

u I am no politician. The President of the United States 
is my superior officer, and I am under his command. I beg 
you, if you have any regard for me, to march your company 
away, as I do not wish to be thus annoyed. I consider this 
merely a political demonstration for a selfish and political 
object, and all such I disapprove of." 

At Pittsburg, Johnson found banners inscribed with his 
old phrases, ' ' Traitors must take back seats in the work of 
reconstruction;" "We must make treason odious;" and 
the like. He tried to speak, but the people — almost riotous 
— refused to hear a word from him, though giving deafening 
cheers for Grant and Farragut. 

The tour soon ended. Johnson was not intoxicated by 
liquor, as many supposed, but only by his own passions. 
Grant wrote to a friend that he was ' ' prodigiously glad to 
get home," and that while declining to mingle in politics, 
he freely told everybody that it was an insult to ask any 
Northern man who had helped suppress the rebellion, to 
support for office any candidate who was not loyal in 1861, 
and "whose anxiety that the flag should have thirty-six, 
and not twenty stars, did not come to him until after Lee's 
surrender." 




GEN. GRANT'S RESIDENCES SINCE THE WAB. 






1866.] More about Mexican Matters. 531 



CHAPTER XLV. 

RECONSTRUCTION. 

Seward had always "believed that the withdrawal of the 
French from Mexico could be secured "by diplomacy, with- 
out resort to arms. Grant never did ; and on learning that 
our minister at Paris had been officially notified that Louis 
Napoleon — in violation of repeated promises — would not 
call home his troops until the spring of 1867, wrote to Sher- 
idan an emphatic letter : — 

October ninth — Grant to Sheridan. 

"My opinion is that the interest of the United States, and duty, is 1< 
that foreign interference with the affairs of this continent is put an end to. 

u*, * * It is probable that you may have an opportunity of judging 
the designs of Santa Anna, should he attempt to send a force to the 
Grande. Should his designs be inimical to the Government of Mexico, with 
which we are at peace, the same duty, in obedience to our own neutrality 
laws, compels us to prevent the fitting out of expeditions hostile to that ( lov- 
eminent, that existed in the case of the Fenian movement against our north- 
ern neighbor. 

"There is but one party, one government in Mexico, whose wishes 
claim to respect from us. No policy has been adopted by our Governmen 
which authorizes us to interfere on Mexican soil with that country, but I 
is nothing, that I know of, to prevent the free passage of people or mat 
going through our territory to the aid of the recognized Government. 

" Our neutrality should prevent our allowing the same thing when the 
effect is to make war upon that Government, so long as we are at peac 
it." 

October tioenty -second. — Sheridan to Grout. 

"I am in receipt of your letter of the ninth instant, and cordially c 
cide with all your views. I have sent a staff officer to the Rio Gr, 
definitely announce that I will support the Juarez Government in M 
against all factions, and to notify the adherents of Ortega and Santa A 
get out of the way; that no protection or security would he given to 
parties on our side of the river. I also sent word to Canal,, that hi, conduct 
had been disgraceful and unfaithful. 

"I have been obliged to neglect affairs over there for some time past, on 



532 Sheridan on "the Imperial Buccaneer.'' [1866. 

account of being anchored here, but will give more attention to them from 
this time out. 

" Maximilian has gone over to the church party, without doubt, or at 
least has made the offer, and, if accepted, it will give him the backing of 
Catholicism* in Europe, and perhaps in all the Southern States; but the 
church party in Mexico has lost its wealth, to a great extent, and is not so 
powerful as formerly. The calculation of the adherents of Maximilian, in 
Mexico and out of it, is an expected disturbance of peace of our country, and 
they are calculating largely upon it. 

"I think myself that the foreign merchants of Matamoras have been the 
principal instigators of the conduct of Canales, and I learned recently that 
they have sent a petition to Maximilian to reoccupy the place. I do not be- 
lieve this, but doubtless some have sought to give publicity, to this impres- 
sion. 

u * * * The trade which would flow through the channels of Monte- 
rey, Matamoras, Brownsville, and Brazos Santiago, will amount to nearly 
twelve millions of dollars per year, as soon as there is a settlement of Mexi- 
can difficulties, in the establishment of a Government there friendly to the 
United States, and that can give security to trade. 

"I will tolerate no violations of neutrality on the part of factions op- 
posed to the Juarez Government." 

October twenty-third. — Sheridan to Sedgwick, commanding United States 

forces on the Rio Grande. 

"I am satisfied that there is only one way in which the state of affairs on 
the Rio Grande can be bettered, and that is by giving the heartiest support 
to the only Government in Mexico recognized by our own, and the only one 
which is really friendly to us. 

You will, therefore, warn all adherents of any party or pretended gov- 
ernment, in Mexico or in the State of Tamaulipas, that they will not be per- 
mitted to violate the neutrality laws between the Liberal Government of 
Mexico and the United States ; and also, that they will not be permitted to 
remain in our territory and receive the protection of our flag, in order to 
complete their machinations for the violation of our neutrality laws. 

" These instructions will be enforced against the adherents of the imperial 
buccaneer, representing the so-called Imperial Government of Mexico,} and also 
against the Ortega, Santa Anna, and other factions." 

In Maryland a legislature was to be elected which would 

* Sheridan himself was scrupulously reared in the Catholic faith, and though 
perhaps not so devout as the rest of the family, still adheres to it. — Wliitelaw 
End's "Ohio in the Wary — A marvel of industry and comprehensiveness — not alto- 
gether just, I think, in its judgments of several leading generals, but incomparably 
the most complete and creditable record, thus far, of the history made by any State 
during our great conflict. 

f These italics are not Sheridan's. 



1866.] Grant on sending Thoops into Maryland. 533 

choose a United States Senator. The Union republican 
party had denounced Andrew Johnson's recent policy as 
identical with that of Jefferson Davis. Desiring the con- 
servatives to triumph, the President professed to apprehend 
violence, and suggested preparations to suppress it with 
United States troops. Grant, instructed by him to investi- 
gate the alleged difficulties, reported on the twenty-fourth 
of October, in these wise and moderate terms : — 

" The conviction is forced on my mind that no reason now exists for 
giving or promising the military aid of the Government to support the 
laws of Maryland. The tendency of giving such aid or promise would be 
to produce the very result intended to be averted. So far there seems to be 
merely a very bitter contest for political ascendency in the State. 

"Military interference would be interpreted as giving aid to one of the 
factions, no matter how pure the intentions or how guarded and just the 
instructions. It is a contingency I hope never to see arise in this country, 
while I occupy the position of General-in- Chief of the army, to have to Bend 
troops into a State, in fall relations with the General Government, on the 
eve of an election, to preserve the peace. If insurrection does come, the law 
provides the method of calling out forces to suppress it No such condition 
seems to exist now." 

Obviously he could not be used. The President, aware 
of this, had already requested the Secretary of War to have 
Grant accompany our new minister to Mexico — about to be 
evacuated by the French— ■" to give him the aid of li is ad- 
vice," and "as evidence of the earnest desire felt by the 
United States for the proper adjustment of the questions in- 
volved." Grant had replied to Stanton in a letter marked 
"private," and dated October twenty -first : — 

ct * * * It is a diplomatic service for which I am not fitted either by 

education or taste. It has necessarily to be conducted under the 8 
Department, with which my duties do not connect me. Again, then, I moi 
respectfully but urgently repeat my request to be excused from the perform- 
ance of a duty entirely out of my sphere, and one, too, which oan I 
much better performed by others." 

On the twenty-sixth the President reiterated his request . 
The General answered on the twenty-seventh :— 

" I now again beg most respectfully to decline the proposed mission for the 
following additional reasons, to wit : — 



534 He Refuses to go to Mexico. C 1866 - 

" Now, whilst the army is being reorganized and troops distributed as fast 
as organized, my duties require me to keep within telegraphic communica- 
tion of all the department commanders, and of this city, from which orders 
must emanate. Almost the entire frontier between the United States and 
Mexico is embraced in the departments commanded by Generals Sheridan 
and Hancock, the command of the latter being embraced in the military 
division under Lieutenant- General Sherman, three officers in whom the 
entire country has unbounded confidence. 

"Either of these general officers can be instructed to accompany the 
American minister to the Mexican frontier, or the one through whose 
command the minister may propose to pass in reaching his destination. 

"If it is desirable that our minister should communicate with me he can 
do so through the officer who may accompany him, with but very little delay 
beyond what would be experienced if I were to accompany him myself. I 
might add that I would not dare counsel the minister in any matter beyond 
stationing of troops on the United States soil, without the concurrence of 
the administration. That concurrence could be more speedily had with me 
here than if I were upon the frontier. The stationing of troops would be as 
fully within the control of the accompanying officer as it would of mine." 

The General was determined not to go. He feared that 
in his absence Government troops might be used improperly 
in Maryland. Sherman, who would be left in charge, was 
popularly believed to be more in sympathy with the 
President. But, as usual, he proved true as steel. He 
told Grant to remain by all means, and said to Johnson : — 

"He ought not to go — he is needed here — but I can go 
as well as not. My trunk is always packed." 

The Executive accepting "Hobson's choice" sent Sher- 
man, and the election passed off without disturbance. Con- 
gress then forbade by law the removal of army head-quarters 
from Washington without the consent of the General-in- 
Chief. 

Grant had become out-spoken on the issues of the day. 
To an old acquaintance, the ex-rebel General " Dick 
Taylor," a son of President Taylor, lie wrote, November 
twenty-fifth : — 

"The day after you left here the President sent for me, as I expected he 
would, after conversation with his attorney-general. I told him my views 
candidly about the course I thought he should take, in view of the verdict 
of the late elections. It elicited nothing satisfactory from him, but did not 
bring out the strong opposition he sometimes shows to views not agreeing 



i 867 -] Favors Negro Suffrage. 535 

with his own. I was followed by General Sickles, who expressed about the 
same opinions I did. 

"Since that I have talked with several members of Congress who are 
classed with the radicals — Schenck and Boutwell for instance. They express 
the most generous views as to what would be done, if the constitutional 
amendments proposed by Congress were adopted by the Southern States. 
"What was done in the case of Tennessee was an earnest of what would be 
done in all cases. 

" Even the disqualification to hold office imposed on certain classes by one 
article of the amendment would, no doubt, be removed at once, except it 
might be in the cases of the very highest offenders, such, for instance, 
those who went abroad to aid in the rebellion, those who left seats in Con- 
gress, etc. All or very nearly all would soon be restored, and so far 
security to property and liberty is concerned, all would be restored at one.-. 

"I would like exceedingly to see one Southern State, excluded State, 
ratify the amendment, to enable us to see the exact course that would be 
pursued. I believe it would much modify the demands that may be made 
if there is delay." 

" I never could have believed," said Grant to a Mend, 
" that I should favor giving negroes the right to vote ; but 
that seems to me the only solution of our difficulties." 

During the winter of 1866-7, while reconstruction meas- 
ures were pending, Orr of South Carolina, Brown and 
Walker of Georgia, and other late prominent secession- 
ists, asked his counsel. To all he replied, in substance :- 

" Go to the Union republicans in Congress, and to them 
alone. Have nothing whatever to do with Northerners wh< i 
opposed the war. They will never again be intrusted with 
power. The more you consort with them, the more exacting 
the republicans will be, and ought to be. When you 
home, urge your people to accept negro snffrage. If yon 
had promptly adopted the constitutional amendnu >n1 al h >liflh- 
ing slavery, or the one making negroes citizens, and guaran- 
teeing the public debt, Congress would undoubtedly have 
admitted you ere this. Now it will add impartial suffrage. 
The sooner you accept that, the better for all concerned. 

The first reconstruction act— a military bill - for themt >re 
efficient government of the late rebel States," passed March 
second, 1867— was framed chiefly by the General. I lie sup- 
plementary act, dated three weeks later, was passed during 
an extra session, held that the legislative power might be 






536 Recommends Martial Law in Texas. [i 86 ?- 

ready to frustrate any effort of the President to violate the 
laws. Grant had urged the holding of that session. His 
anxiety was deep, and his confidence in Johnson altogether 
gone. 

January twenty-fifth, 1867, Sheridan to Grant, on Texan affairs. 

" The condition of freedmen and Union men in remote parts of the State 
is truly horrible. The Government is denounced, the freedmen are shot, and 
Union men are persecuted if they have the temerity to express their opinion.'' 

Grant forwarded this to the Secretary of War, with an 
indorsement concluding : — 

" In my opinion, the great number of murders of Union men and freed- 
men in Texas, not only as a rule unpunished, but uninvestigated, constitute 
practically a state of insurrection; and believing it to be the province and 
duty of every good government to afford protection to the lives, liberty, and 
property of her citizens, I would recommend the declaration of martial law 
in Texas to secure these ends. 

" The necessity for governing any portion of our territory by martial law 
is to be deplored. If resorted to, it should be limited in its authority, and 
should leave all local authorities and civil tribunals free and unobstructed, 
until they prove their inefficiency or unwillingness to perform their duties. 

" Martial law would give security, or comparatively so, to all classes of 
citizens, without regard to race, color, or political opinions, and could be con- 
tinued until society was capable of protecting itself, or until the State is re- 
turned to its full relation with the Union. 

" The application of martial law to one of these States would be a warn- 
ing to all, and, if necessary, could be extended to others." 

The President took no action in the matter. 

Isaac 1ST. Arnold, of Illinois, sent the General a copy of 
his admirable and valuable work, "Lincoln and Slavery." 
Grant responded, May thirtieth : — 

« * * * J f e el no doubt but the public will be much interested in your 
work in the present generation. How much more will it interest future 
generations, when slavery conies to be looked upon as one of the atrocious 
barbarities of the past ! " 

Sheridan, commanding in the Southwest, and Pope in 
Georgia, Alabama, and Florida, raised the question whether, 
under the reconstruction acts, district as well as department 
commanders had a right to remove civil officers who attempt- 
ed to obstruct the laws of Congress. Grant replied to Pope, 
April twenty -first : — 



18G7.] The Heal Issue on Reconstruction. 537 

" My views are, that district commanders are responsible for the faithful 
execution of the reconstruction acts of Congress, and that in civil matters I 
can not give them an order. I can give them my views, however, for what 
they are worth. 

" It is very plain that the power of district commanders to try offenders 
by military commissions exists. I would advise that commissions be re- 
sorted to, rather than arbitrary removals, until an opinion is had from the 
attorney-general, or it is found that he does not intend to give one." 

Attorney-General Stanberry, in political sympathy with 
the President, gave his opinion that district commanders 
had not this power. Grant, however, telegraphed Pope :— * 

" Enforce your own construction of the military bill, until ordered to do 
otherwise. The opinion of the attorney-general has not been distributed to 
district commanders in language or manner entitling it to the force of an 
order; nor can I suppose that the President intended it to have such force." 

The real issne was whether the ballot should be guaran- 
teed to the negroes of the Southern States, as the safest and 
surest mode of enabling them to protect themselves against 
any revenge or injustice from the late rebels. All the legisla- 
tion of Congress was in favor of this ; all Andrew Johnson's 
opposition was aimed at it. The discontent caused by his 
unconcealed attempts to obstruct the reconstruction laws, 
culminated in a movement in the House of Representatives 
for his impeachment. Grant, summoned before the Judi- 
ciary Committee, f was examined at great length. 

Eldridge (of the Committee). — "Have you had interviews with the Presi- 
dent about granting amnesty or pardon to rebel officers or people ?" 

Geant. — "I have occasionally recommended a person for amnesty * 
I thought that there was no reason why, because a person had risen to the 
rank of general, he should be excluded from amnesty, anymore than one 
who had failed to reach that rank. I thought the President was right in 
excluding from pardon West Point graduates, or persons connected with the 
Government who had gone into the rebellion ; but I don't sec any reason 
why the volunteer who happened to rise to the rank of general Bhonld bo 
excluded any more than a colonel. 

u* * * 1 frequently had to intercede for General Lee and other par 
officers, on the ground that their parole, so long as they obeyed the laws of 
the United States, protected them from arrest and trial. The President at 
that time occupied exactly the reverse grounds, viz. : that they Bhonld be 

* June twenty-eighth. f July eighteenth-twentieth. 



538 Grant and the Impeachment Committee, l^ei. 

tried and punished. He wanted to know when the time would come that 
they should be punished. I told him not so long as they obeyed the law, 
and complied with the stipulation. 

" * * * I claimed that, in surrendering their armies and arms, they 
had done what they could not all of them have been compelled to do, as a 
portion of them could have escaped. But they surrendered in consideration 
of the fact that they were to be exempt from trial so long as they con- 
formed to the obligations which they had taken, and they were entitled to 
that." 

Eldridge. — " You looked on that in the nature of a parole, and held 
that they could only be tried when they violated that parole?" 

Grant. — " Yes, that is the view I took of the question." 

Eldridge. — " That is your view still?" 

Grant. — " Yes, sir, unquestionably. * * * Lee's army was the 
first to surrender, and I believed that with such terms all the rebel armies 
would surrender, and that we would thus avoid bushwhacking, and a con- 
tinuation of the war in a way that we could make very little progress with, 
having no organized armies to meet." 

Eldridge. — "You held that so long as they kept their parole of honor 
and obeyed the laws, they were not subject to be tried by courts ?" 

Grant. — " That was my opinion. I will state here I am not quite cer- 
tain whether I am being tried or who is being tried by the questions asked. 
* * * He [the President] insisted on it that the leaders must be pun- 
ished, and wanted to know when the time would come that those persons 
could be tried. I told him when they violated their parole." 

Eldridge. — " Did you consider that that applied to Jefferson Davis ?" 

Grant. — " No, sir ; he did not take any parole. * * * It applied 
to no person who was captured — only to those who were paroled." 

Eldridge. — " Did the President insist that General Lee should be tried 
for treason." 

Grant. — " He contended for it. * * * I insisted on it that General 
Lee would not have surrendered his army, and given up all their arms, if 
he had supposed that after surrender he was going to be tried for treason 
and hanged. I thought we got a very good equivalent for the lives of a 
few leaders, in getting all their arms and getting themselves under control, 
bound by their oaths to obey the laws. 

u* * *. j never claimed that the parole gave these prisoners any 
political rights whatever. I thought that that was a matter entirely with 
Congress, over which I had no control; that simply as General-in-Chief 
commanding the army, I had a right to stipulate for the surrender on terms 
which protected their lives. That is all I claim. The parole gave them pro- 
tection and exemption from punishment for an offense not in violation of 
the rules of civilized warfare, so long as their parole was kept. 

it* * * It was necessary to do something to establish government 
and civil law there. I wanted to see that done. I do not think I advised 



1867.] He wants Civil Law Established, 539 

any course myself, any more than that I was very anxious to see something 
done to restore civil governments in those States." 

Woodbridge. — " You did not assume to originate or inaugurate any 
policy ; but that when any question came up, and your opinion was asked 
as to what the President was going to do or had done, you gave an 
opinion?" 

Grant. — " That was it exactly ; and I presumed the whole committee 
so understood me. I have always been attentive to my own duties, and 
tried not to interfere with other people's. * * * I only gave my 
view r s on measures after they had been originated. I simply expressed an 
anxiety that something should be done to give some sort of control down 
there. There were no governments there when the war was over, and I 
wanted to see some governments established, and wanted to see it done 
quickly. I did not pretend to say how it should be done, or in what form." 

Eldridge. — "Did you give any opinion in favor of the President's first 
proclamation, giving a State government to North Carolina." 

Grant. — " I did not give any opinion against it ; I was in favor of that or 
any thing else which looked to civil government, until Congress could meet 
and establish governments there. I did not want all chaos left, and no civil 
government whatever. I was not in favor of any thing, or opposed to any 
thing particularly, I was simply in favor of having government there. I 
did not pretend to give my judgment as to what it should be, I was per- 
fectly willing to leave that to the civil department. * * 

" / know that immediately after the close of the rebellion there was a very 
fine feeling manifested in the South, and I thought we ought to take ad- 
vantage of it as soon as possible ; but since that there has been an evident 
change." 

Woodbridge. — " I understand you to say that Mr. Lincoln, prior to his 
assassination, had inaugurated a policy to restore these governments." 

Grant. — " Yes, sir." 

Woodbridge. — "I want to know whether the plan adopted by Mr. 
Johnson was substantially the plan which had been inaugurated by Mr. Lin- 
coln as the basis for future action ? " 

Grant. — " Yes, sir, substantially." 

Boutwell.— " You understood that Mr. Lincoln's plan was temporary, 
to be either confirmed or a new government set up by Congress ? " 

Grant. — " Yes, and I understood Mr. Johnson's to be so too." 

The turbulent President was greatly dissatisfied with 
Sheridan, who, feeling that the rebellion was not yet ended 
in the Southwest, sometimes used strong, almost insubordi- 
nate language about him. He was also dissatisfied with 
Stanton, who — formerly a vehement democrat, but now in 
sympathy with Congress— brought to his new faith the sus- 
picious zeal of a new convert. The country had no great 



540 And Stanton and Sheeidan Retained. [i86t. 

confidence in Stanton' s principle, but was grateful for the 
rugged energy lie had brought to the War Department, 
and the zealous military support he had given to Grant. 

Congress, by the " Tenure of Office" Act, had pro- 
hibited the President from removing civil officers appointed 
during his administration without obtaining the consent of 
the Senate — a law of doubtful constitutionality, and con- 
trary to the practice of our Government since its existence, 
but designed to limit the power of Andrew Johnson to do evil. 
Its friends, in urging it, had said in the Senate that it Avould 
not cover a case like Stanton' s (appointed by Lincoln, and 
not Johnson), and that no cabinet officer of ' ' gentlemanly 
instincts " would attempt to retain his position if the Presi- 
dent desired him to withdraw. 

Grant, knowing Johnson's determination to be rid of 
Stanton and Sheridan, wrote him, on the first of August, 
an earnest letter marked ''private :" — 

" I take the liberty of addressing you privately on the subject of the con- 
versation we had this morning, feeling, as I do, the great danger to the wel- 
fare of the country, should you carry out the designs then expressed. 

" First. On the subject of the displacement of the Secretary of War. His 
removal can not be effected against his will without the consent of the Sen- 
ate. It is but a short time since the United States Senate was in session, 
and why not then have asked for his removal if it was desired ? It certain- 
ly was the intention of the legislative branch of government to place cabinet 
ministers beyond the power of Executive removal, and it is pretty well un- 
derstood that, so far as cabinet ministers are affected by the " Tenure-of- 
Office Bill, it was intended specially to protect the Secretary of War, whom 
the country felt great confidence in. The meaning of the law may be 
explained away by an astute lawyer, but common sense and the views of 
loyal people will give to it the effect intended by its framers. 

" On the subject of the removal of the very able commander of the Fifth 
Military District, let me ask you to consider the effect it would have upon the 
public. He is universally and deservedly beloved by the people who sus- 
tained this Government through its trials, and feared by those who would 
still be enemies of the Government. It fell to the lot of but few men to do as 
much against an armed enemy as General Sheridan did during the rebellion, 
and it is within the scope of the ability of but few in this or any other coun- 
try to do what he has. His civil administration has given equal satisfaction. 
He has had difficulties to contend with which no other district commander 
has encountered. Almost, if not quite, from the day he was appointed dis- 
trict commander to the present time, the press has given out that he was to 



1867.] The President removes Stanton. 541 

be removed; that the administration was dissatisfied with him, &0. This 
has emboldened the opponents to the laws of Congress within his oommand 
to oppose him in every way in their power, and lias rendered necessary 
measures which otherwise may never have been necessary. In conclusion, 
allow me to say, as a friend desiring peace and quiet, the welfare of tho 
whole country North and South, that it is, in my opinion, more than : be loyal 
people of this country (I mean those who supported the Government daring 
the great rebellion) will quietly submit to, to see the very men of all otl 
whom they have expressed confidence in, removed. 

" I would not have taken the liberty of addressing the Executive of the 
United States thus but for the conversation on the subject alluded to in this 
letter, and from a sense of duty, feeling that I know I am right in thifl 
matter." 

But the President — nothing if he was not obstinate — sus- 
pended Stanton, and made Grant Secretary of War ad In- 
terim on the twelfth of August. The General, dreading 
above all things a direct conflict between the Executive and 
Congress as certain to increase the turbulence of the South 
and obstruct the restoration of the States to their full 
relations with the Union, wrote to Stanton the same day : — 

u * * * j n notifying you of my acceptance, I can not let the oppor- 
tunity pass without expressing to you my appreciation of the zeal, patriot- 
ism, firmness, and ability with which you have ever discharged the dutu 
Secretary of War." 

Stanton replied : — 

"Under a sense of public duty, I am compelled to deny the President's 
right under the Constitution and laws of the United States, to suspend 
from office as Secretary of War, or authorize any other person to enter upon 
the discharge of that office, or to require me to transfer to him or an;, other 
person the records, books, papers, and other property in my offioial 
and charge as Secretary of War. 

"But inasmuch as the President has assumed to suspend me from • 
as Secretary of War, and you have notified me of your acceptance of the ap- 
pointment of Secretary of War ad interim, I have no alternativi 
mit under protest to the superior force of the President. 

"You will please accept my acknowledgment of the kind terms in which 
you have notified me of your acceptance of the President's appointn 
my cordial reciprocation of the sentiments expressed. 1 ' 

As Grant's " private" letter to the Presided had not 
"been made public, leading Union newspapers denounced 



542 Removes Sheridan— Grant' s Protest. E 1867 - 

him bitterly as a tool in the hands of Andrew Johnson. A 
few weeks later they were commending his "wise reticence." 
On the seventeenth of August the President issued an 
order removing Sheridan from command in the Southwest, 
and substituting Thomas. In giving it, he wrote Grant :— 

" Before you issue instructions to carry into effect the inclosed order, I 
would be pleased to hear any suggestions you may deem necessary respect- 
ing the assignments to which the order refers." 

The General replied at once with unusual emphasis : — 

"I am pleased to avail myself of this invitation to urge, earnestly 
urge, urge in the name of a patriotic people who have sacrificed hun- 
dreds of thousands of loyal lives and thousands of millions of treasure to 
preserve the integrity and union of this country, that this order be not 
insisted on. It is unmistakably the expressed wish of the country that Gen- 
eral Sheridan should not be removed from his present command. This is a 
republic where the will of the people is the law of the land. I beg that 
their voice may be heard. 

" General Sheridan has performed his civil duties faithfully and intelli- 
gently. His removal will only be regarded as an effort to defeat the laws of 
Congress. It will be interpreted by the unreconstructed element in the 
South, those who did all they could to break up this Government by arms, 
and now wish to be the only element consulted as to the method of restoring 
order, as a triumph. It will embolden them to renewed opposition to 
the will of the loyal masses, believing that they have the Executive with 
them." 

Johnson responded that Sheridan' s rule had ' ' been one of 
absolute tyranny, without reference to the principles of our 
Government or the nature of our free institutions," and that 
in removing him he simply discharged his sworn, official 
duty. 

His letter was plausible and forcibly written, but had 
no influence upon the country. Grant's was hailed with 
delight, as placing him squarely on the record in favor of 
the policy of Congress. 

Thomas, though less outspoken, sympathized with Con- 
gress just as heartily as Sheridan, and was in no mood to 
succeed him on such an issue. His medical director tele- 
graphed opportunely that his health was too fragile for him 
to go South during the hot season. The President therefore 
superseded Sheridan by Hancock. 



1867 -1 " Say Nothing of Them." 543 



CHAPTER XLVI. 



WAR OFFICE. 



Iisr October, John Albion Andrew, of Massachusetts, 
wrote to a confidential friend : — 

" The tendency of the hour is toward Grant, and that is best. It is not 
the ideal good. It is bad for the country that he must leave his present 
post — bad for him, the soldier, to try to endure the hard fate which awaits 
him in civil life. But it is apparently the best practical good the country 
can have; and Grant is so square and honest a man, that he is bound to be 
right in the main anywhere. 1 ' 

Three days later Andrew was dead. He had been the 
most efficient of all our State governors, and was one of the 
purest, ablest, and most lovable public man of his time. 
In expression he was the exact opposite of Grant — a man 
of poetry, of sentiment, of luxuriant rhetoric, but they had 
become very warmly attached. 

In November, a Texan editor, calling upon Grant, found 
him very communicative about every thing except the one 
subject upon which he desired to draw him out. Notwith- 
standing repeated rebuffs, the man of the quill persisted :- 

Editor. — "General, we want you for President. 1 am 
going to support you, and so are my people. What shall I 
say of your views when I get home V ' 

Grant. — " Say nothing of them." 

The new year brought further trouble. The Senate re- 
fused to sanction the suspension of Stanton. Johnson 
doubtless believed the Tenure-of-Office Act unconstitu- 
tional; and he professed a desire to have it tested before 
the Supreme Court of the United States. But poss. ission W as 
nine points in the law, because a suit instituted immediately 
could not be reached in that high tribunal under two years, 
or until after the end of his administration. He therefore 
desired: first, that Grant should disobey the behests of 



544 SURRENDERS WAR OFFICE TO STANTON. [1368. 

Congress, eyen offering if it brought him into trouble to go to 
jail for him ; and second, that declining to do this, Grant 
should not give place to Stanton, but resign and enable the 
President to place some one else in the office, which would 
leave Stanton no redress except through the courts. 

But Grant, acting in accord with the wishes of nine-tenths 
of the loyal people, on receiving official notice of the action 
of the Senate surrendered the office to Stanton. A long cor- 
respondence followed between him and the President, the 
latter asserting that Grant had positively agreed that,- 

" You would either return the War Office to my possession in time to enable 
me to appoint a successor before final action by the Senate on Mr. Stanton's 
suspension, or would remain at its head, awaiting a decision of the question 
by judicial proceedings." 

Grant replied on the third of February : — 

" * * * Performance of the promises alleged to have been made by me 
would have involved a resistance of the law, and an inconsistency with the 
whole history of my connection with the suspension of Mr. Stanton. From 
our conversation, and my written protest of August 1, 1867, against the re- 
moval of Mr. Stanton, you must have known that my greatest objection to 
his removal was the fear that some one would be appointed in his stead who 
would, by opposition to the laws relating to the restoration of the Southern 
States to their proper relation to the Government, embarrass the army in the 
performance of the duties especially imposecf upon it by the laws, and that 
it was to prevent such an appointment that I accepted the appointment of 
Secretary of War ad interim, and not for the purpose 'of enabling you to 
get rid of Mr. Stanton. The course you have understood I agreed to pursue 
was in violation of law, and that without orders from you ; while the course 
I did pursue, and which I never doubted you fully understood, was in 
accordance with law and not in disobedience to any orders of my superior. 

" And now, Mr. President, when my honor as a soldier and integrity as a 
man have been so violently assailed, pardon me for saying that I can but re- 
gard this whole matter, from beginning to end, as an attempt to involve me 
in the resistance of law for which you hesitated to assume the responsibility, 
in order thus to destroy my character before the country. I am in a measure 
confirmed in this conclusion by your recent orders directing me to disobey 
orders from the Secretary of War, my superior and your subordinate, with- 
out having countermanded his authority." 

This brought rejoinder and surrejoinder. The President 
attempted to prove that the General had deliberately broken 
his promise. The controversy caused vehement newspaper 



1868.] His Able Administration of it. 545 

discussion ; but the country was thoroughly satisfied with 
Grant's act, and too familiar with the utter truthfulm 
which had distinguished his character from boyhood, to 
believe him for a moment guilty of any conscious deceit 

So ended his administration of the War Department 
The prime reason which caused him to undertake it lias 
already been given ; but he had another motiv* 1 . Months 
before he said to a friend : — 

" I should like to be Secretary of War for a few weeks, 
just to clean out the office, cut down expenses, and reform 
abuses. It would do good to have a practical man there." 

The result proved the General — whom oracular senators 
had declared " not a man for office dutv" — the ablest and 
most practical head the department had ever known. 
Stanton had been claimed as a model secretary, but Grant 
found gross and wasteful extravagance. He broke np 
the use of mounted orderlies and of ambulances when 1 
absolutely needed, selling the horses and vehicles. He re- 
quired all proposals for supplies to be properly advertised, 
and then let to the lowest bidder, whether his offer was 
technically formal or not. He directed that at our frontier 
posts the troops should do the labor of gathering hay and 
fuel — hitherto furnished at round prices by contractors, 
who usually paid nothing for the supplies or their transpor- 
tation, but employed soldiers to cut the wood and hay, and 
Government teams to deliver them. He prohibited com- 
manding officers from hiring civilians as clerks, mechani 
or laborers, or for any other work which soldiers could do, 
and gave notice that if they disobeyed, the expense would 
be charged to their personal accounts. 

His official report to Congress says :— 

" A long war had entailed upon the army practices of exfcw 
ly unjustifiable in times of peace ; and as the increase of the r 
since 1860 (now almost the entire army) is officered l»y men w in- 
experience does not go back to that period (and therefore th 
know but their indulgences at the expense of the General Governme 
all legitimate), retrenchment was the first subject to attract m; 
* * * * Supplying large armies for a period of four yean 
necessarily led to an accumulation of stores of all sorts far beyond the \ 
of our present establishment for many years to come. Many of the art 

LL 



546 Enoemous Saving for the Goveenment [isgs. 

were of a perishable nature ; besides, being borne on the returns of officers 
accountable for them, they had to be stored and guarded, although the cost 
of care per annum might be greater than their value. Under my direction 
all these surplus and useless stores in the quartermaster's department are 
being sold." 

He soon reduced the current expenses of the department 
more than half a million of dollars per month ; mustered 
out superfluous officers ; sold stores and material to the 
amount of many millions of dollars in the quartermaster's 
department alone, and infused economy and rigid respon- 
sibility through every branch of the military service. 

Sheridan, delighted at Grant's earnest support of the re- 
construction laws and the seeming certainty of his election 
to the Presidency, wrote a friend : — 

" It is perhaps needless for me to tell you how light my heart is on ac- 
count of the glorious record, in front of which General Grant now stands 
before the country. 

" The country now begins to appreciate that his was the only hand which 
patted me on the shoulder and gave me encouragement, when I, almost 
alone, stuck up my little battle flag at New Orleans to assist a second time 
in saving the country and preserving the record of our soldiers. Had Grant, 
Sherman, and myself, and others gone over to the enemy, much darkness 
would have come upon the land. 

"Two solutions were necessary for the settlement of the rebellion. The 
first was to take away from it its military strength. That was done at Ap- 
pomattox. The second, to take away its political strength. That will be 
clone next November. It will be a short campaign, but as decisive as Appo- 
mattox." 

The General-in-Chief thoughtfully reciprocated the es- 
teem of his lieutenant. To a New York editor he said : — 

"The people don't understand Sheridan. Though he 
has all the popularity any man could desire, his capacity is 
not appreciated. The impression seems to be that he is only 
a brave, downright tighter. Really, he is a man of admir- 
able judgment, capable of handling, under any circum- 
stances, the largest army ever seen in the United States." 

A closing observation or two upon Grant' s personal traits. 
No man has a more tender heart. Many were his unosten- 
tatious deeds of kindness, even in his years of poverty ; and 
since Fame and Fortune smiled upon him, all sorts of pen- 
sioners have shared his beneficence. To the widows and 



13GS.J 



A Letter from Phil. Sheridan. 



547 




548 Some of Grant's Personal Traits. [1864. 

orphans of fallen soldiers particularly, his helpfulness and 
generosity have been unfailing. 

Not Abraham Lincoln himself had a more forgiving 
spirit. If he is capable of malice toward any human 
being, I have failed to find evidence of it. While a second 
lieutenant at Jefferson Barracks, soon after leaving the Mil- 
itary Academy, his mess attempted to enforce the rigid 
social discipline of the English army. Failure to come 
promptly to meals, or any slight neglect in dress, was pun- 
ished by a fine of a bottle of wine. Grant, naturally care- 
less in his attire, was frequently mulcted. One day he 
ventured to suggest that this rule was proving very hard on 
him. The commandant, a strict martinet, replied coldly : — 

" Lieutenant, young men should be seen and not 
heard." 

This quite quenched the modest subaltern. Ten years 
later, the same rigid colonel was the means of his leaving the 
army. This would have stirred the eternal enmity of any nar- 
row nature. But Grant, since rising to the chief command, 
has treated him with the utmost liberality and kindness, 
helping to secure his promotion and keeping him in respon- 
sible positions. In this case he doubtless respected the con- 
scientious performance of duty as the colonel saw it, but his 
capacity to forget and forgive, even the grossest personal 
treachery, seems to be boundless. 

Few men have a quicker or more genial mirthfulness. 
Once, returning from a wedding in Pennsylvania, in com- 
pany with Mrs. Grant and General and Mrs. Hillyer, he was 
beset by throngs at the stations ; and many people, unfa- 
miliar with his features, took his former aide for the chief. 

Hillyer. — "A droll blunder, isn't itl" 

Grant. — " Oh no ; these people have read in the news- 
papers that I am a very plain man. So when they come into 
the car, of course they don't recognize me by that descrip- 
tion, but take you for the General !" 

His domesticity is exceedingly strong. He is an affec- 
tionate father, and a most devoted husband. All the in- 
mates of his pleasant Washington home seem to have caught 
something of his own modesty, calmness, and gentleness. 



1868.] a National Republican Conyi miu.n 






CHAPTER XLVII. 

white iiorsi:. 

On the nineteenth of Ma}', 1868, a national republi< 

convention, in Chicago, every State of the Dnion being 
represented, adopted this declaration of principles :— 

" 1. We congratulate the country on the assured success of I 
struction policy of Congress, as evinced by the adoption, in the majority 

the States lately in rebellion, of constitutions securing equal civil ami polil 
rights to all, and it is the duty of the Government i<» Bustain tl • Institu- 
tions, and to prevent the people of such States from being remitl 
of anarchy. 

" 2. The guaranty by Congress of equal suffrage to all loyal m< 
South, was demanded by every consideration of public 
and of justice, and must be maintained; while the question of sunra 
the loyal States properly belongs to the people of those St a; 

" 3. We denounce all forms of repudiation as a national crime; and tho 
national honor requires the payment of the public indebtedness in I 
most good faith to all creditors at home ami abroad, nol only aca rdii 
the letter but the spirit of the laws under which it was contracted. 

" 4. It is due to the labor of the nation that taxation should be i 1.' 
and reduced as rapidly as the national faith will permit. 

" 5. The national debt, contracted, as it has been, for the !>:•• i <-f 

the Union for all time to come, should be extended over a fair p< 
demption ; and it is the duty of Congress to reduce the rate of int< 
on, whenever it can be honestly done. 

" 6. That the best policy to diminish our burden of debl 
our credit that capitalists will seek to loan ns money at 1< 
than we now pay, and must continue to pay. so 1<>: ndiation, 

or total, open or covert, is threatened or suspected. 

" 7. The Government of the United States should be admi 
the strictest economy, and the corruptions which have been 
nursed and fostered by Andrew Johnson call loudly for radical ret. 

"8. We professedly deplore the untimely and tragic death iham 

Lincoln, and regret the accession of Andrew Johnson to I 
has acted treacherously to the people who elected him, and t 1 
pledged to support; who has warped high legislative and 
who has refused to execute the laws; who has used his high 
other officers to ignore and violate the laws; who has empl ■■ »• 



550 Its Declaration of Principles. t 18GS - 

tive powers to render insecure the property, the peace, liberty, and life of the 
citizen ; who has abused the pardoning power ; who has denounced the Na- 
tional Legislature as unconstitutional ; who has persistently and corruptly 
resisted, by every measure in his power, every proper attempt at the recon- 
struction of the States lately in rebellion ; who has perverted the public 
patronage into an engine of wholesale corruption, and who has been justly 
impeached for high crimes and misdemeanors, and properly pronounced 
guilty thereof by the vote of thirty-five Senators. 

" 9. The doctrine of Great Britain, and other European powers, that be- 
cause a man is once a subject he is always so, must be resisted at every hazard 
by the United States, as a relic of the feudal times, not authorized by the law 
of nations, and at war with our national honor and independence. Natural- 
ized citizens are entitled to be protected in all their rights of citizenship as 
though they were native-born, and no citizen of the United States, native or 
naturalized, must be liable to arrest and imprisonment by any foreign power 
for acts done or words spoken in this country; and if so arrested and impris- 
oned, it is the duty of the Government to interfere in his behalf. 

" 10. Of all who were faithful in the trials of the late war, there were 
none entitled to more especial honor than the brave soldiers and seamen who 
endured the hardships of campaign and cruise, and imperiled their lives in 
the service of the country; the bounties and pensions provided by the laws 
for these brave defenders of the nation are obligations never to be forgotten ; 
the widows and orphans of the gallant dead are the wards of the people, a 
sacred legacy bequeathed to the nation's protecting care. 

"11. Foreign emigration — which in the past has added so much to the 
wealth, development, and resources, and increase of power to this nation, the 
asylum of the oppressed of all nations — should be fostered and encouraged 
by a liberal and just policy. 

" 12. This convention declares itself in sympathy with all the oppressed 
peoples which are struggling for their rights ; 

" 13. That we highly commend the spirit of magnanimity and forbear- 
ance with which the men who have served in the rebellion, but now frankly 
and honestly co-operate with us in restoring the peace of the country and 
reconstructing the Southern State governments upon the basis of impartial 
justice and equal rights, are received back into the communion of the loyal 
people ; and we favor the removal of the disqualifications and restrictions im- 
posed upon the late rebels in the same measure as their spirit of loyalty will 
direct, and so may be consistent with the safety of the loyal people ; and 

" 14. That we recognize the great principles laid down in the immortal 
Declaration of Independence as the true foundation of democratic govern- 
ment, and we hail with gladness every effort toward making these principles 
a living reality on every inch of American soil." 

Six hundred and fifty delegates were in attendance ; and 
when the roll of States was called to name a Presidential 



1863.] Grant Nominated for the Presidency. 

candidate, the result showed six hundred and, fifty Doles 
for Ulysses 8. Grant—a unanimity without parallel. 

The announcement of the vote was received with wild 
enthusiasm, all the vast assemblage springing to their !'• 
and flinging up hats and handkerchiefs amid thundering 
cheers. A curtain rising in the rear of the stage exhib- 
ited a painting of two pedestals standing in front of the 
White House, one (bearing a figure of Grant) labeled " I: 
publican nomine^of the Chicago Convention, May twentieth, 
1868 ;" the other, "Democratic nominee, New York Coin 
tion, July fourth, 1868." Between the two stood the God- 
dess of Liberty, pointing with one hand to Grant, and w ith 
the other to the vacant pedestal. Overhead was the motto : 
"Match him." At that moment, a dove, painted in the 
national colors, was let loose, and flew back and forth, and 
the historic eagle of the Eighth Wisconsin— now an honor- 
ary member of all patriotic organizations in the West- 
added his screams to the tumult. 

A few days later, a committee headed by Ex-Governor 
Hawley, of Connecticut, president of the convention, wait 
upon the General at his residence. To Hawley'a add] 
Grant responded, in the longest speech of his life :- 

" Mr. President, and Gentlemen of the National Union Coxvkn . 
I will endeavor in a very short time to write you a letter accepting the I 
you have imposed upon me. Expressing my gratitude for the confid< 
you have placed in me, I will now say but little orally, and that is to tl 
you for the unanimity with which you have selected me as a candidate 
the Presidential office. I can say, in addition, I looked on during the pi 
ress of the proceedings at Chicago with a great deal of interest, and 
gratified with the harmony and unanimity which seem to hav< 
the deliberations of the convention. If chosen to till the high ofl 
which you have selected me, I will give to its duties the same ener 
same spirit, and the same will, that I have given to the performance 
duties which have devolved upon me heretofore. Whether 1 Bhali 
to perforin these duties to your entire satisfaction, time will defc 
You have truly said, in the course of your address, that I shall hare no 
policy of my own to enforce against the will of the people." 

On the twenty-ninth he wrote to the Committee :- 

"In formally accepting the nomination of the National Union RepnbE 
Convention of the twenty-first of May inst., it seems proper that some state- 



552 u Let us have Peace." [isos. 

ment of views beyond the mere acceptance of the nomination should he 
expressed. 

"The proceedings of the convention were marked with wisdom, modera- 
tion, and patriotism, and I believe express the feelings of the great mass of 
those who sustained the country through its recent trials. I indorse the 
resolutions. 

" If elected to the office of President of the United States, it will be my 
endeavor to administer all the laws in good faith, with economy, and with 
the view of giving peace, quiet, and protection everywhere. In times like 
the present it is impossible, or at least eminently improper, to lay down a 
policy to be adhered to right or wrong, through an administration of four 
years. New political issues, not foreseen, are constantly arising ; the views 
of the public on old ones are constantly changing, and a purely administra- 
tive officer should always be left free to execute the will of the people. I 
always have respected that will, and always shall. 

"Peace and universal prosperity — its sequence — with economy of admin- 
istration will lighten the burden of taxation, while it constantly reduces the 
National debt. Let us have peace.''' 1 

Let us have peace ! Protection to white men and black 
men of the South who upheld the Government with their 
muskets ; good faith to all men everywhere who upheld it 
with their money. These cardinal points secured, all mag- 
nanimity, all fraternity toward its late foes, who so mis- 
takenly but so devotedly poured out their blood. 

Let us have peace ! " The Blue and the Gray " slumber 
side by side, under the pines and cypresses, the live oaks and 
magnolias. The same flowers mantle their dreamless beds, 
the same birds twitter above them, the same waters ripple 
at their feet. Hark to the message, borne by the murmuring 
wind, from those untroubled sleepers to us — warring Union- 
ists and confederates no longer, but Americans all, with 
one flag, one country, and one destiny ! It counsels the 
victors to the largest forbearance ; the vanquished to honest 
acquiescence in the only finality — equal and impartial 
justice to all. So shall the blackened track of war smile 
again with "the fruitful olive and the cheering vine." So 
shall the new America fulfill the hope, 

" Whose dawning day, in every distant age, 
Has exercised the sacred prophet's rage ; 
The people's prayer, the glad diviner's theme, 
The young man's vision and the old man's dream." 




E a& *fcvAH .Bi-tatoa 




1823 -] Bieth and Ancestry. 553 



SKETCH OF SCHUYLER COLFAX. 



Schuyler Colfax was born in a house yet standing in 
North Moore Street, in the city of New York, on the twenty- 
third of March, 1823 — eleven months later than Grant 

His grandfather, William Colfax, a native of Connecti- 
cut, was commissioned a lieutenant in the continental army 
at seventeen, and before the war ended became a brigadier- 
general. He commanded Washington's body-guard and 
enjoyed his personal friendship. After independence was 
established he resided in New Jersey, and married Hester 
Schuyler, a cousin of General Philip Schuyler. Washing- 
ton stood godfather for their first son who bore his name. 

The third son, Schuyler Colfax, became a citizen of New 
York and teller of the Mechanics' Bank. He died youi 
and four months afterward, the subject of this sketch v. 
born to a widowed mother. 

The slender school education which young Schuyler re- 
ceived never included a lesson in English grammar. It was 
all obtained in the public schools of New York, and finished 
at the high school in Crosby Street when he was ten years 
old. But he was rich in a mother whose character v, 
very lovable and whose life was very beautiful. 

For three years after leaving school he was clerk in a 
store. When he was thirteen, the family— M rs. Col fa s 
married again — removed to the village of New Carlisle, m 
northern Indiana. There, again, for four years, Schuyler 
worked as a clerk. He was an assiduous reader. ( no citi 
zens relate that he used to sit upon barrels in the m< 
idle moments, devouring every scrap of newspaper he - 
find; and make trips on foot, or with tin' family wagon, to 
South Bend, where he could borrow books. 

When he was eighteen the family removed to : 
Bend. Mr. Matthews, his step-father, was elected county 
auditor, and appointed the youth his deputy. t t . 

Here, for two years, Schuyler was a Leading spin! in a 
"moot" legislature, and obtained his firs! facility ui ae 
bate and his first knowledge of parliamentary law. 1 ounce 
always fascinated him. At eleven he was so interested in 



554 Founds the South Bend Register [Wft 

an election that he visited the polls in New York and Brook- 
lyn to get the earliest intelligence of the result Now he 
began to write for newspapers, and soon gained a Local repu- 
tation and a name for clearness and strength in arguing, both 
orally and scriptnrally. All regarded him as a youth of 
great kindness and integrity and high intellectual promise. 

Before he was twenty-one he reported the Indiana State 
Senate, for the Indianapolis Journal, two winters, at two 
dollars per day. To his unsuccessful request for an incr< 
of salary, the proprietor replied thai the position was gaining 
him wide acquaintance, which he could one day turn t<> ad- 
vantage when he became candidate for Congress. Schuyler 
laughingly offered to do the work and soil out his chances 
for three dollars a day. 

He was a born journalist, and at twenty -two founded in 
South Bend the weekly St. Joseph Valley Register. It began 
with two hundred and fifty subscribers. The end of the first 
year of unremitting work found him in debt thirteen hundred 
and seventy-five dollars; but he toiled on cheerily. 

Once, his printing-office — upon which there was not a 
cent of insurance— burned to the ground; but he began 
anew, and soon had one of tin 1 most widely circulated and 
influential journals in the State. The Register, first whig, 
afterward republican, advocated zealously the temperance 
and anth slavery reforms, was full of interesting selections, 
and notable for the ability and clearness of its editorials. 

In 1848 he was a delegate to and secretary of the national 
convention which nominated Taylor for the Presidency. 

When the YVilmot Proviso— prohibiting slavery in all our 
territory acquired through the Mexican war— was before 
Congress, he advocated it earnestly. The Register said :— 

" True to the impulses of freedom, the popular branch of Congre-s has, by 
its action, given embodiment and form to that public opinion of the North- 
ern States which declares: 'Not another inch of slave territory!' It is, in- 
deed, a manly stand. It makes the pulse of those who hope yet to see the 
day when the chain of human bondage shall be broken, beat quicker and 
more gladly. It sounds in the ears of those who prefer anarchy and disso- 
lution to a gradual emancipation, as the knell of 'the peculiar institution.' 
And like those Christmas chimes, which Dickens so beautifully portrays as 
constantly repeating the same language to the poor Briton, so, wherever 
throughout the whole South this news shall speed, it will seem to every ear, 
constantly, in expressive language, to ring forth: 'It must fall! It must 
fall!'" 

In 1849 he was a leading and influential member of 
a convention to revise the constitution of Indiana. He 
earnestly opposed, with tongue and pen, a clause in the 
new constitution — which the people ratified at the polls — 



1S49.] Nominated and Defeated for Congress. 555 

prohibiting negroes from settling in the State, and those 
already there from purchasing land. This barbarous pro- 
hibition stood until 1865, when the State supreme court 
annulled it, as in conflict with the Federal Constitution. 

In 1851 the whigs of the South Bend district unanimously 
nominated Colfax for Congress, without his seeking or ex- 
pectation. He made a very able canvass against Graham 
N. Fitch, the democratic sitting member, speaking more 
than seventy times, and winning golden opinions from all 
sorts of people. When charged that he had opposed the 
negro prohibition he stated his views boldly, and added : — 

" These are my conscientious convictions. If you ask me to sacrifice 
them for a seat in Congress, I tell you frankly I can not do it. I would not 
act counter to my convictions of duty if you could give me fifty terms in 
Congress." 

The district was hopelessly democratic, and Fitch was 
re-elected by a majority of two hundred. 

In 1852, Colfax was a delegate to the last national whig 
convention, which nominated Scott. The same year he de- 
clined the nomination for Congress, and Dr. Eddy, a demo- 
crat, was elected by a majority of twelve hundred. 

When Stephen A. Douglas's Kansas Nebraska bill cam.' 
up, the Register opposed it in cogent, earnest editorials. 
After the act passed, Colfax wrote :— 

" The conspirators against freedom are triumphant. At the fitting hour 
of midnight, on Monday last, in the House of Representatives, the Nebraska 
bill passed bv a majority of thirteen; and the heart of our continent is thrown 
ooen to the free and unrestricted admission of slavery. Hie compact made by 
the second generation of American freemen in 1S20, whereby that vast region 
between the Mississippi Valley and the Rocky Mountains was dedicated to 
liberty forever, has been ruthlessly abrogated by the representatives of their 
successors, and the South to-day repudiates what it forced upon the N 

md ?Z^^J£As may do-we shall neither recommend nor 
practice submission to this outrage. * * * We, for one, go back now to 

policy of our Revolutionary fathers-of Jefferson whoahweto 

every foot of the territories of the nation to eternal and irrepealabk freedom 

-?o\he statesman-philosopher, Franklin, who 7^^ 
Congress, 'that you will step tot -ver^ verge tft he power ve g* » 
for discouraging every species of tramc in the per.on^ 
We go back to the platform of the United North in 1819 (would ^Uiat it 
never been departed from), when the legislature £ ffl 2X5£EwK 
declared that no new State should be admitted m any ai : ero r n 

on any pretext whatever, which tolerates or sanctions the mi 
slavery." 

In 1854 he was nominated for Congress by the new free- 
soil or anti-Nebraska party. He defeated ^~™^ 
voted for Douglas's bfil-by the unprecedented majontj ot 



55G A llEPRESENTATIVK-Si-ii.. H OS Kan-.\ [1M 

seventeen hundred and seventy-six. Taking his seal in the 
House in December, L855, he participated in the firsl stand- 
u]) fight againsl Blavery— lasting for two months, which re- 
sulted in the election of Banks to the Speakership, 

Colfax's quick perceptions, instinctive knowledge of 
men, and familiarity with parliamentary law, made bim a 
leading member from the outset. LnJune, 1856, he mi 
a speech, setting forth so clearly and irresistibly the infamy 
of the ik bogus" laws of Kansas, thai it excited national at- 
tention. It was in great demand as a campaign document, 
and more than half a million of copies were circulated. 
These laws provided death, seven years' imprisonment, or 
confinement with ball and chain, as punishments \'^v harbor- 
ing or feeding runaway Blaves, or denying the Legal es 
(Mice of slavery in Kansas. Colfax illustrated by bringing 
into the Eouse such an iron ball, six inches in diameter, 
as they proposed to attach to any free white citizen of Kan- 
sas who should be guilty of one of these heinous offenses. 
At his request, Alexander II. Stephens <>t* Georgia, held it 
up so that members might Bee it. Well has it been said :— 

"That, globe of iron was a locket of fine gold to the millstone that the 
reluctant nerveless vice-president of cebels afterward bang about hit Deck." 

In October, 1S5G, Colfax's constituent- re-elected him by 
a large majority. During the great conflict upon the Le- 
compton constitution, he was a most efficient worker in 
saving Kansas from that infamous instrument. 

Re-nominated by acclamation, and re-elected by a laige 
majority in 1858, he was made chairman of the Bouse com- 
mittee on post-offices and post-roads. His zeal and industry 
gave to the position a prominence it never had before. Se 
secured the reform of gross abuses, and the establishment 
of important new routes, including a daily overland mail 
from the Missouri to the Pacific ; and also hastened the pas- 
sage of the bill establishing a telegraph line to California. 

Colfax's whole heart was in the conflict of 1860. He had 
feared Seward's nomination, believing that he could not 
carry Indiana, Pennsylvania, and other doubtful Northern 
States. Before the convention, he expressed his views in the 
Register with great clearness and wisdom : — 

u We differ somewhat from those ardent contemporaries who demand the 
nomination of their favorite 'representative man,' whether popular or un- 
popular, and who insist that this must be done, 'even if we are defeated. 
We agree with them in declaring that we shall go for no man who does 
not prefer free labor and its extension to slave labor and its extension— who, 
though mindful of the impartiality which should characterize the Executive 
of the whole Union, will not fail to rebuke all new plots for making the Gov- 



i860.] Views at the Outbreak of the War. 557 

eminent the propagandist of Slavery, and compel promptly and efficiently 
the suppression of that horrible slave-trade which, the whole civilized world 
has branded as infamous, piratical, and accursed. But in a republican na- 
tional convention, if any man can be found, North, South, East, or West, 
whose integrity, whose life, and whose avowals rendered him unquestionably 
safe on these questions, and who would yet poll one, two, or three hun- 
dred thousand votes more than any one else, we believe it would be both 
wisdom and duty, patriotism and policy, to nominate him by acclamation, 
and thus render the contest an assured success from its very opening. * * * 
We hope to see 1860 realize the famed motto of Augustine — 'In essentials 
unity, in non-essentials liberty, and in all things charity. ' " 

During the campaign lie often made two speeches a day, 
and liis effectiveness was recognized alike by friend and foe. 
After Lincoln's election, and through his entire administra- 
tion, Colfax enjoyed his fullest political confidence and his 
wannest personal friendship, and was invariably consulted 
by him upon important questions. 

At the outset, while many republicans were alarmed and 
willing to concede every thing to prevent war, Colfax 
insisted that the party should not be craven enough to give 
up any cardinal principle. When Sumter was fired on, he 
wrote an earnest editorial, concluding :- 

'• Henceforth it is evident all party divisions are to be forgotten. The 
question whether our Government has a right to exist, towers above all 
others. The only issue is to be between patriots and traitors. All men 
must range themselves under the reptile flag of disunion, or the resplendent 
stars and stripes, every thread of which has been consecrated by the blood 
of heroes, who lived and died under its folds. There can be no neutrals in 
this struggle. They who are not for the American Union, the American 
Constitution, and the American Flag, against treason and rebellion, against 
perfidy and revolution, against the architects of ruin and the inaugurators of 
civil war, are in sympathy with the traitors." 

Through the historic years that followed, he toiled in sea- 
son and out of season— at home pleading for enlistments. 111 
Washington, besides his official duties, spending one or two 
days of every week in hospitals with suffering soldiers. 

At twenty-one he had married a lady who was Ins play- 
mate in childhood. Her character was exceedingly lovable, 
and his domestic life, from the day when they began house- 
keeping, in a humble cottage at South Bend, was fall ol 
happiness. She became, however, a confirmed invalid. 
Through many years he gave to her the tenderest care, the 
most thoughtful affection ; but in July, 1863, she died. Leav- 
ing him a childless widower. Her place in his home and 
heart has never been filled. Like all deep griefs, his has n< >t 
often found utterance ; but I think none of his .few close inti- 
mates have heard him allude even casually to the shadow 
which then fell upon his life, without his voice breaking and 



558 Elected Speakef* of the House. [isg3. 

his eyes filling. A monument in the South Bend Cemetery- 
marks her grave, and bears the inscription: — "The path 
of the just shineth more and more unto the perfect day." 

In December, 1863, when the Thirty-eighth Congress 
met, Schuyler Colfax was elected Speaker by one hundred 
and one out of one hundred and eighty votes ; and as he 
was conducted to the chair, the galleries rang again and 
again with applause. As he was the first journalist who 
had ever filled the position, the members of the press in 
Washington signalized it by giving him a public dinner. 
Samuel Wilkeson, who presided, made a felicitous speech, 
in which he related this experience : — 

"Eighteen years ago, at one o'clock of a winter moonlight morning, while 
the horses of the stage-coach in which I was plowing the thick mod of In- 
diana were being changed at the tavern in South Bend, I walked the foot- 
way of the principal street to shake off a great weariness. 

"I saw a light through a window. A sign, ' The Register,"* was legible 
above it, and I saw through the window a man in his shirt sleeves, walking 
quickly about like one that worked. I paused, and looked, and imagined 
about the man, and about his work, and about the lateness of the hour to 
which it was protracted; and I wondered if he was in debt and was strug- 
gling to get out, and if his wife was expecting him and had lighted a new 
candle for his coming, and if he was very tired. 

" A coming step interrupted this idle d reaming. When the walker reached 
my side I joined him, and as we went I asked him questions, and naturally 
they were about the workman in the shirt-sleeves. ' What sort of a man is 
he?' ' He is very good to the poor; he works hard ; he is sociable with all 
people; he pays his debts; he is a safe adviser; he doesn't drink whisky; 
folks depend on him; all this part of Indiana believe in him.' " 

In April, 1864, Alexander Long, a representative from 
Ohio, openly advocated in the House the recognition of the 
Southern confederacy as an independent nation. Without 
consulting any friends, Colfax descended from the chair, 
moved the expulsion of Long for violating his oath of 
fidelity to the Government, and supported it by a fervid 
speech. A majority favored this, but not a two-thirds 
vote ; so the resolution was modified to one of censure. 

In the autumn following he took an active part in the 
canvass which resulted in Lincoln's re-election, speaking 
not only in Indiana, but, as usual, in many other States. 
The burden of all his addresses was: — " Stand by the 
Government." The same fall he was triumphantly re- 
elected to Congress. 

In January, 1865, he had the proud satisfaction of pre- 
siding while the House passed a joint resolution to amend 
the constitution and forever prohibit slavery within the 
jurisdiction of the United States. To bring that best day 
in all our legislative history no man had worked more 
earnestly than Schuyler Colfax 



1365.] a Tour through the Mixing Stai 

He spent an hour with Lincoln on the morning preced- 
ing the assassination ; and was one of the last friends who 

conversed with him before he started for the theater. I taly 
a pressing engagement prevented Colfax from making one 
of the President's party. Had he been in the box it \a not 
likely that he would have escaped the pistol of Booth. 

During the summer of 1865 he made a long tonr through 
our mining States, between the Rocky Mountain- and tne 
Pacific, accompanied by three journalistic friends. He v. 
received everywhere with enthusiasm. It was my g< n id fl >r- 
tune to be one of his companions, and I can not better ram 
up the impressions left upon me than by reproducing para- 
graphs of my own, written to The Tribune at the clofi 

"The lines have fallen to us in pleasant places. The trip baa been full 
of interest and of profit. For Mr. Colfax it has proved one oontinno - 
tion. He looks back through a long vista of brass bands and banquets, pri- 
vate welcomes and public receptions. It was deserved: for li*.- made 
to study the great interests of the West, which are national tfl 
and he has always been their liberal and steadfast friend. It must 
compensation for the emptiness and thanklessness of public hi'. 
loved and honored by personal strangers in the remote, scattered 1. 
naif a continent. 

"I have heard him make fully seventy speeches — all differing 
creditable — all abounding in that kind of sense most uncommon t!. 
over — common sense. I have heard him address adozen audiences in dil 
opposition to their own earnest views — upon taxing the products of i 
and silver mines, the Oregon Pacific Railway, specie currency, war wit!. 
French invaders of Mexico, and the like— yet he pleased them better while 
differing than most speakers could while agreeing. 

" In private intercourse he seems to steal the heart of every mai . 
and child — by no demagoguery or effort, but by simplicity, natnraln. u 
overflowing kindness. In every public position thus far, he baa achit 
signal success; and if his countrymen ever call him to the liighi in 

their gift, he will fill it with credit to himself and honor to the nation." 

On the twenty-seventh of May, 1867, in an add] I the 

Union League Club of New York, he said : — 

'•Only last month the British Chancellor of the Exchequer, D'ls 

defending his reform bill, exclaimed : 'This is a nation < 
remain so.' If I may be pardoned for replying, I would • na- 

tion o£ freemen, and must remain so.' " 

He is now in his third term as Speaker. No al I 
siding officer ever sat in the chair of the House. He a 
forward business with wonderful rapidity, decides uitnca 
questions on the instant, is never perplexed and 
ruled. Despite the bitterness of our recent contest 
sition members usually join unanimously at the clos< 
session in voting him thanks for his invariable impartiality. 

In May, 1868, a national republican convention at I ln- 
cao-o unanimously nominated him for the second pla 



560 Nominated for the Vice-Peesidency. [ises. 

the ticket with Grant. It was the greatest personal triumph 
ever achieved in such a body. Abraham Lincoln had been 
twice elected from Illinois ; Grant was from the same State, 
and nsage required the candidate for the vice-presidency to 
be taken from some other part of the Union. But so uni- 
versal was the faith in Colfax' s fitness, that he was selected 
from many popular and able leaders. 

So pure is his personal character, that the venom of 
political enmity has never attempted to fix a stain upon it. 
No man has proved so effective a foe of the democratic 
party ; but his fairness of statement, freedom from vitupera- 
tion, and personal lovableness, have won from its leading 
members exceptionally kind and courteous treatment. 

He makes on all occasions, apparently without prepara- 
tion, the most happy, pointed, and pithy speeches ; has a 
rare flow of animal spirits ; is a terrible worker, attending 
thoroughly to an enormous amount of detail without the 
least flurry, and always able at night to forget his load of 
care and sleep like a child. A writer says truthfully : — 

"Socially, Mr. Colfax is frank, lively, and jolly. The everlasting I-hood 
and Us-ness of great men is forgotten in his presence. His manners are not 
quite so familiar as those of Lincoln, but nearly so. They are gentle, natu- 
ral, graceful, with a bird-like or business-like quickness of thought and 
motion." 

Utterly without pretension, and always bearing the bur- 
den and heat of the day, he combines thorough devotion to 
principle with rare practical wisdom, never driving away 
but always conciliating those who differ from his party on 
trivial or temporary issues, and counseling harmony and 
forbearance whenever more serious dissensions arise. He 
is thoroughly imbued with Abraham Lincoln' s belief, that 
if the highest can not be gained to-day, it is the part of wis- 
dom to secure the best that can be had, and then work 
patiently on the morrow to lift the standard. 

In his thorough loyalty to the people, his charity to 
political opponents, his love of country, his readiness to 
modify theories by experience, his capacity for getting at 
the pith and marrow of a subject and stripping it of super- 
fluities and false issues, his purity of character, single- 
hearted frankness, and inflexible devotion to his own sense 
of duty, he bears striking resemblance to Grant. 

By large gifts faithfully used, by unswerving patriotism 
and spotless integrity, the orphan boy, compelled at ten 
years old to face the world for himself, has fairly earned 
the second place of civil trust and honor in the gift of the 
American people. 



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EIOHAEDSON'S 

'BEYOND T HE MI SSISSIPPI/ 

THE MOST FASCINATING BOOK OF THE YEAR. 

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500 Large Octavo Pages— 203 IllMstratioais. 



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Trappers, Pioneers, and Great. Natural Curiosities of theNew States and Territories. 1857 — 1867. — 
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THE GREAT REBELLION. 

A HISTORY OF THE 

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